In a recent National Solar Summit – 2018 organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry in New Delhi, the Chamber suggested that the focus of solar power should shift away from installations of solar plants to generation and sustainability of solar energy.
India’s solar plant installations are largely import-fed with better quality inputs. As a result, the withdrawal of safeguards measures against solar panel imports should be undertaken in a phased manner is what the Chamber strongly feels. The Chamber suggested that sufficient encouragement should continue to happen at policy levels to encourage indigenous manufacturers of solar panels and other inputs that form critical components to setting up solar power installations.
A view largely emerged during the Summit that already a great deal of solar plant installations has been happening across the country with an accelerated pace and from now onwards the emphasis should be on generation and sustainability of solar power plants so that adequate non-conventional energy is supplied throughout the country particularly in land parcels in which solar raise are powerful to generate energy.
According to the Chamber, the National Solar Mission seems firmly on its path to achieve the target of 100 GW of grid-connected solar power by 2022. However, a lot needs to be done to improve domestic manufacturing and develop a competitive industry with qualified manpower. It was also stated that the solar rooftop program needs to be strengthened and market innovations are required so that a large market for distributed solar power can be developed in a short time.
