Shadow over solar power scheme

The Hindu: Chennai: Thursday, 19 March 2015.

The domestic rooftop solar scheme, which was launched in 2013 has found few takers in the State. The ambitious project has dramatically fallen short of its own target, The Hindu has learnt through an RTI petition.

The Tamil Nadu government set a target of installing 10,000 rooftop solar plants under the Chief Minister’s Solar Rooftop Capital Incentive Scheme launched in 2013. So far, it has sold only 460 solar plants all over State, most of them in Chennai.

Under the scheme launched by former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, a subsidy of Rs. 20,000 per kilo watt installed was assured, in addition to the 30 per cent subsidy provided by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE). The data was made available in response to a Right to Information (RTI) Act petition submitted to Tamilnadu Energy Development Agency (TEDA).

K.E. Ragunathan, managing director, Solkar Solar Industry, said the grid-tied solar scheme was forecast to be a failure right from day one due to various reasons. One factor is that inverters for the one kilo-watt solar plant are manufactured only in China, and even that technology is not proven, he said. “Currently, the problem is that a user cannot link the power from the solar installation to their existing inverter battery. The other hassle is going through the administrative procedures involved in getting connected to Tangedco’s grid through net metering technology.”

The RTI replies indicate the complex nature of administrative sanction for net meters. The meters, besides recording the units generated, also show the number of units exported to Tangedco’s distribution network. So far, net meters have been provided only to 213 domestic consumers with the remaining 247 consumers in the dark about the amount of power generated and used, both by them, and the grid. This is reportedly due to shortage of net meters, according to the reply.

The failure of TEDA to guarantee MNRE’s 30 per cent subsidy to vendors under this scheme has also been a stumbling block in aggressively marketing this project, authorities said. Though the State subsidy of Rs. 20,000 is easier to get, vendors feel that without the more attractive Central subsidy, they stand to lose if they participate in the scheme.

P. Ashokkumar, president, Tamil Nadu Solar Energy Developers Association, said in a situation where the solar vendors are finding it tough to get the 30 per cent subsidy from the Central government, any scheme associated with the MNRE would make no sense.

Apart from the State subsidy scheme, MNRE also has an independent Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) launched in 2010, where a subsidy of 30 per cent is given to those customers installing domestic rooftop solar plants, has also sold only 2,965 units in about five years.