Solar Energy Policies in India: An Assessment of the Impediments

Energy is the prime mover of economic growth, and is vital to sustaining a modern economy and society. Future economic growth significantly depends on the long term availability of energy from sources that are affordable, accessible and secure. Today, India can well be identified as an energy guzzler. The demand for power is growing exponentially and the scope of growth of this sector is immense. In an effort to meet the demands of a developing nation, the Indian energy sector has witnessed a rapid growth. Despite impressive growth in the generation capacity since independence, India has always experienced shortage in terms of peaking capacity requirement as well as energy. The country lacks sufficient domestic energy resources, particularly of petroleum and natural gas, and must import much of its growing requirements. Given this scenario, it is of paramount importance that the country develops all possible domestic energy sources. However, India is still heavily dependent on fossil fuels to fulfill most of its energy demands. But continuation of the use of fossil fuels is set to face multiple challenges: depletion of fossil fuel reserves, global warming and other environmental concerns, geopolitical and military conflicts and of late, continued and significant fuel price rise. Renewable energy, and specifically solar energy, is the solution to the growing energy challenges as they are abundant, inexhaustible and environmentally friendly. Accelerating the use of solar energy is also indispensable if India is to meet its commitments to reduce its carbon intensity. Given the vast potential of solar energy in India, all it needs is comprehensive policies to be a global leader in clean and green energy. Government has taken a number of steps towards improving the adoption of solar energy at a large scale in the country and making the stakeholders aware of its benefits. Many programs and policies have been initiated at both the National and State level for promoting renewable energy, but the use and production of solar energy in the country is still limited. This paper makes an attempt to understand the stakeholders’ perspective on the impediments associated with the governments’ initiatives for solar energy in the country. On studying major initiatives of National government, in the rural and urban scenarios, it was found that there was a gap between the policies and the actual scenario. The awareness level among the beneficiaries was found to be very low. Another aspect tapped is the perspective of the Governments’ officials in implementing the policies and programs, both in the urban and rural areas. Thus, there is an urgent need to generate awareness among the stakeholders regarding the government initiatives, so that solar energy is widely accepted and used.