Solar Energy: Status, Challenges, and Way Forward

India is endowed with vast solar energy potential. India receives nearly 3000 hours of sunshine every year. About 5,000 trillion kWh per year energy is incident over India’s land area with most parts receiving 4-7 kWh per sq. m per day.

• National Institute of Solar Energy has assessed India’s solar potential to be about 750 GW assuming 3% of the waste land area to be covered by Solar PV modules.
• Gujarat and Rajasthan have the highest solar energy potential.

Challenges in scaling up Solar Energy

• Solar power costs have come down considerably but the costs of small solar power projects is higher ....