A year after Tamil Nadu rolled out its Solar Energy Policy 2019, there is not much change on the ground, experts say.
The policy aimed at having an installed solar capacity of 9000 MW by 2023 in the State, with 40% coming from rooftop solar systems.
“The consumer-focused policy, aiming to achieve 3600 MW of rooftop solar, may still remain a dream given policy, regulatory and administrative hurdles,” Martin Scherfler, Co-Founder, Auroville Consulting said. He pointed out that one of the major pain points has been the tariff determined for rooftop solar systems.
In 2019, the Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC) in its solar tariff order, had determined a net-feed in tariff (net exported energy after self-consumption) at ₹2.28 per unit. Consumers can also opt for gross feed-in for selling all the energy produced by the solar panel to the utility. The gross feed-in attracts a utility category tariff i.e. ₹3.04 per unit.
“The net feed in tariff for solar rooftops equates the cost of a single rooftop plant with a utility scale solar plant, covering hundreds of panels and enjoying considerable economies of scale, which is puzzling,” Mr. Scherfler said. This net feed-in tariff does not even cover 50% of the actual cost of solar rooftops. Further, this goes against the Policy 2019 where it specifically states that “solar energy gross and net feed-in tariffs will be determined by TNERC taking into consideration different capital costs based on the solar system capacity,” he added.
Raj Prabhu, CEO of Mercom Capital Group said Tamil Nadu was the third-largest State in solar installations in the country at the end of 2019, and renewables represent over 50% of the total installed power capacity in the State. “TN was one of the early adopters of solar in the country, but lately, momentum has stalled and support for solar has faded. Tamil Nadu has instead become known for curtailing solar power generation and delaying payments to developers. Nobody wants to develop any new projects in the State because of its reputation. Unless there is a complete turnaround in its approach to solar power development, it is likely to be surpassed by other States,” he added.
Mr. Scherfler said there is no accountability for the targets and no action has been taken yet since the policy has been announced.
