One GW solar plant requires around 3.125 million phovoltaic panels (PV). Hence, 110 GW would reuire around 312.5 million PVs
The Government of India has plans to announce a scheme for solarising agricultural feeders. The Power and Renewable Energy Minister R K Singh, at the The Economic Times Energy Leadership Summit 2021 announced that the government is thinking of putting aside Rs 20,000 crore for this scheme.
“In the new scheme we are coming out with, which will be put before the cabinet soon, we are setting aside Rs 20,000 crore for agricultural feeders which we will solarise. The cost of solarisation will be met by agricultural subsidy by states,” Singh was quoted saying by the Economic Times.
He also added that in order to solarise the entire agricultural sector, the country would need to add 10 gigawatt (GW) in solar capacity. It is worth mentioning here that India has raised renewable energy capacity to 96 GW in the past five years. The country’s solar energy capacity has also gone up by about 15 times.
Now, given the fact that solar panels usually range in wattage output from around 250 watts to 400 watts, generating 110 Gigawatts would mean generating 110 billion watts. The same will mean plenty of business for solar panel makers located in, and outside of India. As per the website energy . gov, one GW solar plant requires around 3.125 million photovoltaic panels (PV). Hence 110 GW would require around 312.5 million PVs.
India, at the moment has the capability of manufacturing solar panels for only three GW capacity. As a matter of fact around 80 per cent of the solar cells and modules used in the country during 2018-19 were imported from China and these accounted for around $2.16 billion of imports.
The government of the country has recently announced a PLI scheme to boost manufacturing of solar panels locally in India. Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd (IREDA) has also started inviting bids from solar module manufacturers for setting up solar manufacturing units under the Rs 4,500 crore scheme.
“Solar capacity addition presently depends largely upon imported solar PV cells and modules as the domestic industry has limited operational capacities of solar PV cells and modules. The National Programme on High-Efficiency Solar PV Modules will reduce import dependence in a strategic sector like electricity and as such reinforce the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative,” IREDA had said in a statement.
The outcomes/ benefits expected from the scheme include additional 10,000 MW capacity of integrated solar PV manufacturing plants.; Direct investment of around 17,200 crore in setting up solar PV manufacturing projects; Direct employment of about 30,000 and Indirect employment of about 1,20,000 persons.
