ANNOUNCEMENTS
Out of the 100 GW through solar energy by 2022 target set by the Government of India, most of the growth is happening in the ground mounted solar power plants. The cumulative installed capacity of rooftop solar across the country as on 31st March, 2019 is 1.7 GW, which leaves about 39.3 GW to be achieved in less than 3 years. The limited growth in the rooftop solar sector in India can be attributed to various reasons. Also, the adoption of rooftop solar has not been uniform across different consumer segments. This study analyses the existing solar rooftop policies and regulations to understand the barriers that are existing in the rooftop solar sector in India. It acknowledges the perception that most people have regarding the optimum orientation for rooftop solar being south. Therefore, it examines the variation of energy generation with different orientations for a solar rooftop plant.
The passive opposition from DISCOMs being one of the biggest challenges that the solar rooftop sector faces today in India, this work explores the possibility of matching solar energy generation with load profile of the place. This is believed to be beneficial to the utilities in helping them cut cost and ensure their active participation in deploying solar rooftops. Given that the cost incurred in setting up a solar rooftop plant such that, its generation matches the load profile is higher than the conventional set up of plant; this work recommends the introduction of policy or financial interventions which encourage this method of setting up plants. Thereby helping utilities or the place itself meet the peak demand and also help utilities in saving expenditure.
Keywords– Solar rooftop, DISCOM, Load Profile, Orientation and Tilt angle, Peak Demand.
