India can be an exporter of solar power by 2026 when the industry will be manufacturing solar modules worth 100 gigawatts (GW) annually, said Bhupinder Bhalla, Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. He told The Hindu that this could contribute significantly to the country’s target of 500 GW of power from non-fossil sources by 2030. India has fallen short of its target of installing 175 GW renewable energy from solar, wind, biomass and small hydropower sources by December 2022. It could only install 122 GW. The reason for falling short is the cost of solar panels. The official said that now India is manufacturing poly-silicon wafers, the scenario will be changing. “We’ll need about 30-40 GW for our domestic purposes annually and the rest can be used for export. The incentive schemes that are in place are designed to encourage the manufacturers of wafers. We have never had poly-silicone manufacturing in India and this is the first time we’ll be making ingots and wafers in India. This is necessary for the future health of the solar ecosystem in India,” said Bhalla. Apart from module prices, land acquisition has been a major challenge for solar power manufacturers. Despite the Centre commissioning 57 large solar parks worth 40 GW in recent years, only 10 GW have been operationalised. “Installing a megawatt of solar power requires on average four acres of land. So various developers face challenges in acquiring it and that’s one reason for the delay. Some projects have been cancelled, for lack of progress, but we expect 40 GW to be fully commissioned in the next two years,” Bhalla said. The future phase of India’s renewable energy development will be led by hybrid projects and renewable energy parks that will host solar and wind projects along with battery storage systems. “States have been demanding consistent, dependable power and that can be done only if solar and wind power is stored [via batteries] and made available on demand. This is, of course, a challenge globally,” he said.
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India needs 30-40 GW for its domestic purposes annually and the rest can be used for export
