To commemorate ‘Solar Appreciation Day’, Earth Day Network India (EDN India), in association with The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) organized a roundtable discussion on ‘Business Delivery Models for Solar Energy Implementations’ on Friday, 10th March 2017 at The American Center, Kolkata. The objective was to identify successful policies and programs, and also any impediments to a faster rate of growth of solar power in India.

India has set an ambitious goal of 175 GW (gigawatts) of renewable energy production by 2022. Of that, 100 GW is to come from solar (with 40 of the 100 GW projected generation from rooftop solar). India also anchored the International Solar Alliance of 121 countries located between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. The Finance Minister of India, in the Budget Speech of 1st February 2017, announced a second phase of Solar Park development for an additional 20,000 MW (megawatts) capacity, the reduction of custom duty on solar panel components, and increased allocation for the infrastructure sector.

Despite all these positive policies in place and the benefit of 300 days of sunshine that India has on an average, solar energy installed capacity remains as low as 3.17% of total installed energy capacity. At the current pace, projected installed rooftop solar capacity in India will only be able to achieve 12 GW by 2022. The focus of the discussion was to bring together stakeholders in solar energy propagation and discuss appropriate and effective business delivery models for solar energy implementation.