K Rajendran -
Before Govindan Satheeshan installed solar panels on the roof of his home in southern India’s Kerala state under a government scheme two years ago, the 70-year-old retiree was unsure. Would the panels produce enough electricity? Would they be too expensive? Would the system suffer technical glitches?
But his hefty electricity bills, of up to Rs 15,000 ($205) every two months, motivated him to sign up — and today his bills have dropped close to zero.
Satheeshan is so happy with the results he invited anyone uncertain about installing a home solar system to visit him in Thiruvananthapuram, the state capital.
“People are still doubtful about the feasibility of rooftop solar panels. If anyone is interested but sceptical, they are welcome to visit my home and I will clarify (the benefits)’’, he said.
Kerala now hopes to convince more residents to make the switch, launching a new solar rooftop programme in January aimed at curbing carbon emissions and cutting the state’s reliance on imported power.
The Soura (Sun) project aims to install solar panels on 75,000 homes, which will contribute 350 megawatts (MW) of power to the state’s grid.
Combined with the 20,000 houses that already put in solar panels under an earlier initiative, the new Soura project will help Kerala cover about 10 per cent of its electricity needs through solar, according to KSEB, the state’s electricity board.
Despite Kerala’s solar innovations — from the world’s first solar airport to India’s largest floating solar power plant — the state has lagged behind much of the country in wider uptake of the renewable energy source.
Kerala sits in the middle of a ranking of India’s 28 states in terms of installed solar capacity, according to data from the country’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).
Soura offers a subsidy to encourage residents to sign up for the project and dispel the common belief solar panels are only for the rich, explained A Nasarudeen, a KSEB project leader.
“We have streamlined this project, ensuring that ordinary people will benefit. Their houses will be mini-solar power stations. By exploring solar energy, they can be self-reliant in their electricity needs’’, he said in an interview.
Any surplus electricity the rooftop systems generate can be sold back to KSEB at a rate of 3 rupees per kilowatt hour.
The project is part of the state’s plan to generate 1,000 MW — about a quarter of its electricity needs — from the sun by 2022. KSEB figures show that about 30 per cent of the electricity Kerala uses is produced in the state, with the rest brought in from other states or the national grid at a cost of about 80 billion rupees per year.
— Thomson Reuters Foundation
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