Solar jai ho

The Indian Parliament building, Sansad Bhavan, will soon sport solar PV systems, solar heaters and a biomass plant to promote renewable energy. On behalf of the Parliament, the Punjab Energy Development Agency has invited bids for installing 80 kW solar PV system.

The power system would not only provide battery back up for the Parliament building but more than 50 percent of the generated power would be fed to the grid. The government hopes to play a role model in the solar energy revolution it hopes will follow the solar mission of having installed capacity to 20,000 MW in the next 12 years.

Solar PV systems are costlier than solar thermal systems and there are no incentives for the domestic consumer to install solar PV systems. Perhaps it will follow. The Parliament system should serve as a demonstration of the feed-in tariff mechanism, which the government eventually wants to incorporate in the 20,000 MW solar PV capacity.

Power evacuation from independent sources can be tricky due to the constraints of maintaining a definite frequency of supply. Some distribution companies are offering domestic consumers subsidies for installing solar panels on rooftops. However, this scheme has not taken off too well. It is hoped that feed-in-tariff will encourage participation.

But some technical and financial-related problems regarding feed-in tariff remain unsolved. Should the power generated be fed directly into the grid or should it be pooled locally and then fed to the grid to meet the required parameters of power transmission? What should the consumers be paid for: the total power generated from the solar panels or the amount of power fed to grid?