With about 300 clear and sunny days in a year in most parts of the country, the solar energy available in India exceeds possible energy output of all fossil fuel energy reserves in the country in a single year. India’s land area is about 5,000 trillion kilowatt-hours per year. With noticeable fast depletion of fossil fuels and increasing electricity demand solar is a good option but land, which is required in large parcels for solar, too is becoming scarce even though large quantity of wastelands is still available. But demand for other uses of waste land like urban development and infrastructure is increasing. So, rooftop and floating solar power help in conserving valuable land and water. Solar PV system on water bodies like oceans, lakes, lagoons, reservoir, irrigation ponds, waste water treatment plants, vineries, fish farms, dams and canals provide an attractive option. This also prevents excessive water evaporation and limits algae growth improving water quality.

Aware of this potential, the world’s largest producer of solar power, Chinese company Trina Solar, has come out with an innovative solution to promote rooftop solar in India. China already has one million rooftop solar pv installed. Last year alone, Trina, a Chinese word loosely translated means clean air, installed 100,000 solar rooftops. The company, which has the capacity to manufacture 8 Gw of solar PVs in a year, will soon come out with solar kits with an option of storage as well for off-grid power generation for the Indian market. Gao Jifan, Chairman and CEO of Trina Solar, said that the kit, with up to 3 kw capacity, will provide complete solution for erection of solar rooftop facility so as to ensure quality, easy and quick erection of rooftop plants.

With solar power price falling to Rs 2.44 per unit Trina Solar expected a huge demand for the kit in India, which is now the third largest producer of solar power in the world after China and United States. As India being a focus country in solar power, “we cannot ignore the market,” Gao said adding he would also look at setting up solar pv manufacturing in India when the time is ripe. It has already purchased 90 acre land near Visakhapatnam but would wait for a conducive environment to set up at least 500 mw capacity fully integrated solar pv manufacturing plant. At the moment Adanis and Tatas are the two major manufacturers and they do not manufacture solar wafers, which required huge investment and uninterrupted power supply. Their capacity is small at 200-500 Mw. Trina already controls 20 per cent of the Indian market and is first to cross 3 Gw of solar power in India. All Chinese players are present in India. Indian government policy, infrastructure and supply chain is still not conducive for large scale manufacture of Solar PVs in the country.

Trina has already finalised distributors and dealers in India for rooftop solar kits. Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab are among the leaders in solar power generation. Lately Uttar Pradesh is fast catching up while Rajasthan and Gujarat have slowed down because of being power surplus states. Solar pvs are non-toxic material and hence can be easily disposed when its life cycle ends after 25 years.

Lately floating solar power has caught on in China and India. The West Bengal government has identified two solar floating solar power projects in Murshidabad. The proposed projects are 5 mw floating solar at Santaldih and10 mw at Barkeswar thermal power plant. Trina Solar has set up the largest 40 mw floating solar power plant in a lake in Southern China and planning another 130 mw solar power plant in another location in Southern China. At present in India, Kerala has the largest floated PV solar project of 500 kw size.

CEO of Sun Source Energy, Adarsh Das, said recently the company, which is into erection of solar power plants, has set up a floating solar power of 100 Kw in Panipat at Indian Oil Refinery for its cooling water tank. Significantly the PVC like floaters on which the solar panels are erected is made in India and a Gurugram company proposed to patent the product unlike in China. Trina Solar has imported the floaters from France, for its 40 Mw floating solar farm. It is only in the process of developing indigenous Chinese floaters.

Das said Sun Source, which was into rooftop solar, is now setting up large solar farms in India following its success in setting up one in Philippines.

Das was ,however, critical of delay in refunding the set offs after GST came into being. This was affecting the margins for solar companies, which were mostly in small scale sector. GST has originally fixed 12 per cent rate for solar power plants, which was subsequently reduced to 5 per cent after protest from the industry. But on inputs, tax is still high and as a result huge refund is yet to be made resulting in large chunk of money still stuck affecting the working capital of these solar power companies, mostly in small sector. If these refunds are not made, many solar companies may fold up at a time Indian government is pushing hard solar power generation in the country. (IPA Service)