Presently, the usage of solar energy has increased with the advent of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and bypassing traditional energy sources such as fossil fuels. Government of India (GoI) is adopting various policy measures to promote diffusion of solar energy across the nation and has huge solar energy investment plans in near future. In this regard, selection of appropriate site for solar power installation is of prime concern. It is a critical issue that needs to be analyzed in depth for producing solar power efficiently because various key factors viz. social, technical, economic, environmental and political aspects are associated with it. Considering the fact that there are lots of factors which affect the solar farm site selection, it is imperative to organize them in a systematic hierarchy. In this direction, present study aims to select appropriate site in an Indian case using hybrid combination of two Multi Criteria Evaluation (MCE) methods- Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) and fuzzy Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). Present investigation reveals that Sonepat is the best location for solar installation followed by Rohtak, Chandigarh, Gurgaon and Hisar in state of Haryana, India. The purpose of the investigation is to present an effective, efficient and systematic decision support framework which might help policy planners in the evaluation process of appropriate solar farm site selection in India.

Investigation of feasibility study of solar farms deployment using hybrid AHP-TOPSIS analysis: Case study of India

Parameters identification of photovoltaic models using hybrid adaptive Nelder-Mead simplex algorithm based on eagle strategy

Energy is the key component in social and economic development of a country. It plays a pivotal role in building the nation and accomplishment of the missions such as “Make in India”, “Swachh Bharat Mission”, “Start-up India”, “Digital India” and “Agricultural Sustainability”. Indeed, more than 70% of Indian population resides in rural sectors and agricultural outcome being their only source of income. Deprivation of energy in rural sector and increasing energy demands in urban area is compelling India to exploit Renewable Energy Resources (RES) and reduce usage of fossil fuels. Solar power installations play a pivotal role in this direction. Although efforts are underway for solar energy implementation in rural India but still Renewable Energy Technologies (RET) lack popularity due to various obstacles that hinder its diffusion at grass root level. In this context, barriers of solar power installation in Indian rural sector have been recognized using extensive literature survey and experts’ input. In the present investigation, Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) methodology integrated with fuzzy MICMAC is utilized to identify the interrelationship among the identified barriers. Moreover, rankings of the identified barriers have also been obtained. ‘Social and Environmental barriers’ have been identified as dependent barriers while ‘Marketing and Policy barriers’ emerged out as independent barriers which needs to be addressed. The developed integrated structured model will be beneficial in understanding the interrelationship and dependencies among the identified barriers in the diffusion and adoption of solar energy in Indian rural sector.

Identification and analysis of barriers in implementation of solar energy in Indian rural sector using integrated ISM and fuzzy MICMAC approach

Outlook on the Indian scenario of solar energy strategies: Policies and challenges

Continuously increasing demand of microgrids with high penetration of distributed energy generators, mainly renewable energy sources, is modifying the traditional structure of the electric distribution grid. Major power consumer countries are looking for alternative energy sources to avoid the impact of higher fossil fuel consumption. Thus, different policies have been promulgated to promote renewable energy technologies (RETs) and distributed energy resource (DER) deployment and are encouraging technological innovation. These policies aim to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and achieve energy security and independence to meet an ever-increasing electricity demand. Many studies have been performed on the successful integration of RET and DER operation and control, protection and stability issues, all simultaneously and satisfactorily implemented during feasible microgrid operation. However, apart from the technical challenges, few microgrid studies exist on effective policies and incentives for microgrid promotion and deployment. This survey investigates the policy, regulatory and financial (economical and commercial) barriers, which hinder the deployment of microgrids in the European Union (EU), United States (USA) and China. In this paper, a clear view on microgrid policy instruments and challenges are investigated to aid future developments.

Overview of Current Microgrid Policies, Incentives and Barriers in the European Union, United States and China

A decade before conversion of solar energy into electricity was quite expensive compare with other renewable energy or conventional fossil fired generated power. For making solar energy as a main stream source of power generation Indian government has taken several initiatives in last 5–6 years. Presently, the deployment of the solar power project in India is governed by both central and state government under the various schemes. These schemes are mainly includes, Feed-in-Tariff (FiT), Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO), long term Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), Renewable Energy Certificates (REC), Accelerated Depreciation (AD) benefit and reverse bidding/auctions etc. As an effect of this competitive market environment, the tariff of solar power has come down from INR 17 or US $ 0.271 (year 2010) to less than INR 6 or US $ 0.0922 (year 2015). This decremented solar tariff may achieve grid parity soon but also has raised the question of sustainability of the solar power project as well. Additionally, this multi-policy environment of both central and state government has created lots of confusion among the solar power project developers to select scheme and make their investment viable as per other power generation business. This paper summarizes various schemes under the current policy framework in terms of viability of the solar power projects in India. It also includes issues related with the sustainability of the solar power project taken under the competitive bidding process with remarkable lowered tariff than benchmarked tariff (ceiling price)in India (i.e. INR 7 or US $ 0.107).

This study will help project developers and other stakeholders to understand the issues related with viability of the project in current multi-policy environment for better planning before investing in the field of solar Power business.

Om P. Nangia

Papers

A study of existing solar power policy framework in India for viability of the solar projects perspective