THE HINDU EDITORIAL

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A sunshine initiative: On the government’s rooftop solar panel plan

Centre’s solar initiative should be accommodative to States

The major difference from earlier solar promotion policies is that it is the Centre, as opposed to the State power distribution companies (discoms), that will be pushing for solarisation. India’s discoms, most of which are heavily loss making, have had little incentive so far in moving high-consumption customers to decentralised solutions, such as rooftop solar. Given that such discoms have the best granular information about power supply at the household level, by-passing them will not be a successful strategy. The Centre’s push to give visibility to a hitherto laggard programme is welcome. After all, the move towards decarbonised power will be half-hearted if it does not involve households. So far, only 12 gigawatt (GW) out of an intended 40 GW of rooftop solar panels has been installed. Here too, household rooftops account for only 2.7 GW with the rest being commercial or building units. The Centre’s move can thus galvanise a subsidiary domestic industry of solar panels — the subsidies will not be available for imported panels — and must be tweaked in a way to be more accommodative to States. Else, there is a real risk that much of the challenges that have impeded previous initiatives will resurface.