Context :
Interview of PM Shri Modi ( Gujarat samachar – 02 May
24 – My translation ) :
Shri Modi said :
“ There is one more thing I have to do. I want to make
your Electricity bill Zero. Even your petrol bill , zero.
You may wonder how. But I am not talking in air. We
have a scheme.
We have launched SuryaGhar Yojana. Under this scheme,
Government provides Rs 50 - 60 - 70 thousand. You install a Solar
Panel on your roof and generate electricity.
Use as much as you need and sell the surplus to the
government. Earn by selling the surplus to the
government.
Today you are paying your Electricity bill. Modi will
usher days when you will generate an income from the
power that you generate.
Now the Electric Vehicle era is coming. Currently if
you have a scooter or car, you have to fill up with petrol worth Rs 100 – 200.
But if you generate electricity at your home, you can
charge your vehicle at night. Even if you start using your vehicle right from
morning, you won’t have to spend even one rupee for
petrol “
( To hear this interview, click > https://youtu.be/-SIHWVjheJk )
Brief Background :
22nd Jan 2024
:
PM Shri
Modi announce Suryodaya Yojana under which 300 units / month of electricity
will be made available to 10
Million “ Poor / Middle Class “ households
01 Feb :
This was
also mentioned in the budget speech of Finance Minister ( Budget allocation of Rs 10,000 crore )
2nd Feb :
MNRE
minister Shri R K Singh announced :
“The
government will bear the entire cost of installing solar rooftop systems as part of the Pradhanmantri
Suryodaya Yojana, which will offer up to 300 kilowatts of power monthly to one
crore low income households.
A low income
household is being identified as one whose monthly electricity consumption is below or up to 300 kilowatts
or unit. Centre will bear the entire cost of installing
rooftop solar (RTS) systems.
13 Feb :
PM launches “ PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana. PM Modi posted on X, formerly
Twitter :
“ In order to further sustainable development and
people’s wellbeing, we are launching the PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana. This
project, with an investment of over Rs. 75,000 crores, aims to light up 1 crore households by providing up to 300 units of free
electricity every month.
In order to popularise this scheme at the
grassroots, Urban Local Bodies and Panchayats shall be incentivised to promote
rooftop solar systems in their jurisdictions. At the same time, the scheme will
lead to more income, lesser power bills and employment generation for people.
Current Status after
3 months of launch :
PM
Surya Ghar : Muft Bijlee Yojana : National Portal
Ø Counter
: Total Visitors: 2757937
Ø No info as to : Applied / Feasibility Study
completed / Approved / Installed / ( Number and Kw )
Ø No info as to : Subsidy amount disbursed
Hurdles :
Ø Very
long / involved process , having following steps ( at each step, a form to be
filled in ) :
# Registration > Application Submission >
Feasibility Approval ( by DISCOM ) > Vendor Selection >
Work
Start > Solar Installation details > Inspection > Project
Commissioning > Subsidy Request >
Subsidy Disbursal
Any other hurdle
?
Ø A
huge one . This scheme will never catch-up in cities where
most buildings are multi-storied ( 10 / 20 floors ) , and house 20 / 50
families
Ø Each
flat owner / tenant, has ( on average ), 10 Kw connected load. Hence entire building
would demand, 200 Kw / 500 Kw of solar panels
Ø 1
Kw Solar panel requires 100 sq ft , - so a typical city building would need 20,000
– 50,000 sq ft of roof area ! As against this , such buildings are likely to
have barely 10 % of roof area needed
Ø This
roof area constraint makes this scheme a NON STARTER for the cities
Given these
hurdles, what kind of achievement can be expected ? :
Ø Thanks
to this elaborate and involved procedure, as against the target of 30 GW / 10
Million families , in next 3 years ( till March 2027 ) , with luck we may
achieve 3 GW / 1 million families [ barely
10 % of target ].
Is there any evidence to
support this pessimistic outlook ?
Yes . Take a look at :
Is there any way
to overcome these hurdles and achieve the target ? If so , what ?
Ø Simple.
For my need of 10 Kw, if I do not have 1,000 sq ft of roof area in my building
in Mumbai , then SuryaGhar Yojana should allow me to “ buy and own “ 1,000 sq
ft of solar panels anywhere in India – say in Kolhapur in some sort of “ Cooperative
Solar Farm “
Ø My
Kolhapur panel will deliver everyday 50 Kwh ( 10Kw x 5 hours / day of sunshine )
of electricity to the DISCOM operating in Kolhapur ( MSEDC ) . A total of 1500
units per month
Ø In
Mumbai , my local DISCOM , ADANI ELECTRIC will deliver to me 50 Kwh daily –
FREE ( with only small wheeling charge )
Ø In
short, allow city-dwellers to enjoy the subsidy benefit
offered by SuryaGhar Yojana , by setting up Solar Panels , anywhere
in India
I suggested this proposal
to Cabinet Ministers through my following e-mail :
If you are in a hurry and
have no time to read my e-mail , then following schematic diagram will make it
very easy to grasp the concept of a Co-operative Solar
farm
I urge the incoming
government to include this proposal in its 100 DAYS ROAD-MAP (trailer to
movie ?) and enable 10,000 Co-operative Solar Farms to
get launched in next 24 months
Would you like
to suggest any specifics ?
Yes
Ø Open up SuryaGhar Yojana for all of India’s 290 Million households ( families ) – having any amount
of monthly consumption ( dispense with 300 units / month limit ). Also to all
Industrial / Commercial organizations ( in a nutshell , for every entity which
has a Consumer Account with ANY Discom )
Ø But,
do restrict the max subsidy amount at Rs 78,000 –
even for those drawing more than 300 units / month ( to limit the burden on the
budget )
Ø Also offer subsidies to consumers who
choose to invest in Co-op Solar Farms ( like SundayGrids.com )
, shown in diagram below
Ø Disburse
the subsidy amount ( to a member / subscriber of a Co-op Solar Farm ) within 48 HOURS of completion of PROCESS FLOW shown in chart above
Ø Mandate
that ALL DISCOMS must become members of SETI and integrate their BILLING
SYSTEMS with SETI network exchange. Co-owners of a Co-operative Solar Farm will
automatically become members of SETI as soon as they register and pay up. Instantly
, SETI will create for such a member , a DEMAT GREEN CREDIT account , which will keep history of
all BUY / SELL transactions and the PRICE at which the transactions take place
Ø To
encourage DISCOMS, compensate them for ANNUAL loss of revenue if any ( 2024 as
base year )
Ø To
encourage consumers, give them Induction Solar Stoves (
costing around Rs 4,000 inclusive of an inverter ) at subsidized rates ( under
National Clean Cooking Mission ).
Families opting for Solar Stoves must be
entitled to earn GREEN CREDITS ( at
present, this scheme
does NOT cover families saving GHG through
use of Solar Stoves ).
It should be possible to recover the
cost of Induction Solar Stove within one year through saving in
LPG cylinder subsidy ( approx. Rs 300 per LPG
cylinder ). Besides this , govt would save foreign
exchange spent on import of LPG ( approx. Rs
75,000 crore per year )
Ø Instead
of depending entirely on private sector “ Co-operative Solar Farms “ , I urge Shri Amit Shah ( Minister for
Co-operatives ), to come up with PUBLIC
SECTOR farms , as outlined in following chart . These too shall operate
like www.SundayGrids.com
For CONCEPTUAL
FRAME –WORK for earning GREEN CREDITS / DEBITS look up :
( A ) Individual
households ( families ) :
( B
) Vehicle
Owners / Transport Undertakings
With regards,
Hemen Parekh
www.HemenParekh.ai / 07
May 2024
CC:
Related Readings :
Extract :
The scheme will be
implemented until March 31, 2027.
The beneficiaries will
apply on the National Portal and will get a unique application ID.
The benchmark cost for a
1 kW system is
fixed at ;
# INR 50,000/kW ……….for the first 2 kW of RTS capacity
and
# INR 45,000 ………………for the additional kW with
effect from Feb. 13, 2024.
The state and union-territory governments may supplement the CFA
provided by the central government for the residential sector with an
additional subsidy for RTS
Green milestone: Share of coal in India’s total installed electricity
capacity drops below 50%/HT/ 03 May 2024
Extract :
The report also found that renewable energy auctions
reached a record 41 GW in fiscal year 2024, with eight auctions including
energy storage components. India met 95% of
its targeted 50 GW annual renewable bidding
trajectory, with innovative formats like wind-solar hybrids and RE-plus-storage
accounting for 37% of auctioned capacity.
India formally updated its climate change commitments in
August 2022, pledging to the United Nations to reduce its GDP emissions intensity
by 45% from 2005 levels by 2030 and to have 50% of its power capacity from
non-fossil sources by the same year.
Cabinet Approves Suryaghar Muft Bijlee Yojana .. 29 Feb 2024 … https://www.narendramodi.in
Extract :
Ø
The scheme
provides a CFA of 60% of system cost for 2 kW systems and 40% of additional system
cost for systems between 2 to 3 kW
capacity.
Ø
The CFA will be capped at 3 kW.
At current benchmark prices, this will mean:
# Rs 30,000 subsidy for 1 kW system,
#
Rs 60,000 for 2 kW systems and
#
Rs 78,000 for 3 kW systems or higher.
==================================================================
Extract :
Interview
with Shri Deepak
Gupta, IAS retd, currently serving as the Director General (Hon.) of National Solar
Energy Federation of India [ admin@nsefi.in, admin@nsefi.in ]
Ø We
should be happy doing 20-30 GW annually till 2030, but raise it to 50 GW after
2030 rising eventually to over 100 GW a year.
Ø Solar
has provided the historic opportunity of producing at any place in any
size. In future, therefore, we should produce 5-10 MW at
every distribution station across the country. Later storage can be
added to these plants. The local consumption will be met by the local generation. This
will improve the quality of power in rural areas or small towns and reduce
transmission losses.
Ø Every
district can become a power producer.
Ø Decentralised
solar resolves this problem entirely. If, at or near the distribution
station, there is barren land available, then ground mounted solar can be set
up
Ø Alternatively,
local loads can be met through open access provisions. As already stated, we save the costs
of transmission as well as the higher costs incurred by the discom in supplying
power to the rural areas. It will also lead to the local
distribution systems being improved which should in any case be a priority.
The subsidy being given for roof top if
given to such projects will actually lead to a much higher
capacity
build up. This is really the sustainable way forward.
Ø Actually,
the rooftop has not done as well as was planned. The target was 40 GW by 2022.
We have achieved about 10. Recently, the government has announced a new policy
to cover 30 GW to encourage roof tops with very substantial subsidies amounting
to Rs 78000 cr. This is likely to lead to substantial uptake.
NSEFI is partnering with States to spread awareness. In the long run, however,
roof top with subsidies is not a solution. The problem is that if customers
with larger roofs install 1-3 KW and obtain substantial subsidy, they are
causing equivalent losses to the discom because their current electricity
charges may be around Rs 7 or higher. These consumers are saving money in any
case, so they don’t need subsidies. The government will pay subsidy to them and
additionally pay for the losses to the discom.
It would be better if the subsidy is restricted to only those houses where the
connected load is 3 kw or less, where in any case, many governments are giving
electricity subsidies. But this would involve a technical challenge for installation on
small roofs. The experience so far has not been good with generation not as
per expectations because of quality or faulty installation concerns. So we have
to be careful.
Alternatively, subsidy could be given to higher capacities but if installed
with batteries so that they use solar power during peak time.
My Earlier 59 E Mails to our
Cabinet Ministers :
2017 ( 10 )
( 3 ) How Cheap can it get ? ……………………………………14 Mar 2017
( 4
) INDIA : the NEW LAND OF THE RISING
SUN ? 01 Apr 2017
( 5
) Green Buildings ? Put Greed to Work !............. 05 June 2017
( 7
) Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana ……………………………
24 Sept 2017
( 10
) Unsustainable SRISTI ?................................
22 Dec 2017
2018 ( 5 )
( 13 ) Clean Power ? …………………………………………… 16 Mar 2018
2019
( 1 )
2020
( 6 )
( 17 ) Appalled ! ..
……………………………………………………………………..26 Jan 2020
( 18 ) A Tale of Two States ……………………………………………………..
28 Oct 2020
2021
( 6 )
2022
( 12 )
2023
( 7 )
2024
( 12 )
( 48 ) Suryodaya Yojana … …………………………………………………….28 Jan 2024
