Sunny Days Ahead – Business Line

Government policies and global trends will play a key role in deciding the attractiveness of the solar power sector for investors.

Solar power is one of the most talked about topics in India today. With peak power deficit hovering around the 12 per cent and increasing fossil fuel costs, the government is aggressively pushing for renewable sources of energy. Of the 182 GW of total installed power generation capacity in India, renewables constitute about 11 per cent. However, the installed solar capacity still has less than 1 per cent share in the total renewable energy installed capacity.
This situation has started to change after the launch of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) last year which targets solar capacity addition of 20 GW by 2022. In addition to the JNNSM, the governments of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Karnataka have declared their own solar policies and the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) have come up with renewable purchase obligations which many of the states have started to enforce.
The key segments that are expected to benefit from the growth of the sector are Power Producers, Manufacturers and Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC). The opportunities, challenges and outlook for these three segments are, however, different.
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