BUSINESS CONSTRAINTS OF SOLAR ENERGY PROJECTS IN INDIA

Solar Energy projects in India face a set of  business constraints which is likely to inhibit the accelerated adoption to Solar Energy.


High Initial Investment  (Nearly 11.66 Crores per MW installed capacity)
Falling per unit cost of procurement by DISCOMS
Falling  Solar panel cost.
Delay in procurement payments by DISCOMs.
Long 20-25 years to recover investment.
Surplus power generating capacity with SEBs leading to lukewarm  response to green energy procurement.

The other contrasting situation in India is nearly 30% of the Indian population do not have access to Electrical energy for meeting their daily use. Either it is total non availability, partial or intermittent power supply or suffers from low -voltage issues.

ECONOMIC CHALLENGES IN THE WAY OF SOLAR PROJECTS

  Nearly all the new solar power projects which are recently commissioned or in the process of commissioning  throw up a new set of challenges to the  parties concerned.

  The state EBs (Electricity Boards), which have already concluded power purchase agreement with the Solar power generating companies  face the problem of being locked in with a higher power purchase rate per unit for a long period which may extend from 15 to 25 years, while the newer projects which are coming on stream are offering power at a much cheaper rate per unit of power.

  The issue generally faced by the Solar power generating companies is that the power generated by them is largely supplied to the state EBs who are the primary customers.The EBs them selves are largely in debt and incurring heavy losses due to T & D losses and  power theft. Such being their poor  financial health, they are not able to release regular and timely  payments to the solar power companies. Often the delay in release of payment is six months or more which is causing financial stress in these newly set up companies and impinge on their profitable operation.

NEW PROJECT COMMISSIONED

M/s Tata Power Solar has commissioned a 100 MW solar project for NTPC  in Ananthapur, Andhra Pradesh. The project is designed to produce 160 million KWHs  annually.