Indo-German Solar Energy Partnership (IGSP)

Project description

Title: Indo-German Solar Energy Partnership (IGSP)
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: India
Lead executing agency: Ministry for New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India
Overall term: 2017 to 2023

Context

India’s sustained growth, which is projected to be around 7 per cent per annum over the next few years, poses enormous challenges with regards to energy and climate policy. With emissions of 2.3 billion tones (t) of CO2 per year (2014), electricity generation accounts for the bulk of the emissions equalling to around 30 per cent of the total. There is an urgency to improve the climate balance while meeting the increased energy demand and providing access to electricity to the millions of India’s population.

In order to curb the climate imbalance and provide uninterrupted power supply to all; the Government of India has increased the renewable energy generation target to 175 gigawatts (GW) by 2022, of which 40 GW will be generated by decentralised rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems. However, as of December 2016, only over 1 GW worth of installations have been achieved and around 0.5 GW was added last year alone from October 2015 to September 2016. The annual rate of expansion is not sufficient to achieve the target set for 2022. Despite policy and regulatory support from central and state governments, many challenges exist that affect the uptake of solar rooftop development on a large scale. Some of these are: lack of awareness among consumers, absence of innovative and attractive business and incapability of power distribution companies to promote rooftop solar PV and accommodate the business environment. Thus, the current annual rate of growth is not sufficient to achieve the target envisaged for 2022 by the Government.

Objective

The project is developing market forces while introducing enabling mechanisms and facilitating investments in rooftop PV systems. The core focus of the project is to develop the market through competition and to work systematically in selected project areas in association with the four core actors namely –
1) State Nodal Agencies (SNAs)
2) Distribution Licensees (DISCOMs)
3) Municipal Corporations, licensing authorities and local enterprises in selected municipal areas (e.g. in the smart cities of Bhubaneshwar, Coimbatore, and Kochi, or in other cities) and 
4) Market participants (project developer, investors, etc.)

Approach

In the multipronged approach, the project is working on the market forces to accelerate the expansion of rooftop PV systems while designing enabling mechanisms and thus facilitating investments in rooftop PV systems. 
The project operates in four different activities, to achieve the aforementioned objective
i.     Ensuring a long-term commitment on the part of DISCOMs
ii.    Creating conducive local (municipal) conditions 
iii.    Promoting and implementing successful business models
iv.    Disseminating information and upscaling
Depending on the project areas, actors involved in rooftop sector development (DISCOMs, Municipal Corporations, SNAs, Business Model Operators, etc.) will be advised through analysis, studies, dialogue promotion and process-related support. Consequently, the project is targeting to aggregate 1 GW of demand for rooftop solar PV. The project will also introduce a unique standardized PV systems known as ‘PV Ports’ of 2 – 4 kWp capacity, for residential sector.

The IGSP project commissioned by the German Government under its German Climate Technology Initiative (DKTI) is being implemented by GIZ in cooperation with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), the Government of India, to facilitate and expedite the rooftop sector development in India.

Results

With the successful implementation of the IGSP project, it is expected to achieve the following objectives while considering the baseline value as of 31.03.2017 under different activities are describe as follows:

  • The newly installed capacity (in megawatts [MW]) of rooftop PV systems that is added each year has doubled overall in the states in which the project is active (e.g. works with municipal corporations, distribution companies [DisComs]).
  • The total installed capacity (in MW) of rooftop PV systems has in-creased fourfold in the states in which the project is active.
  • The number of rooftop PV systems newly installed each year in the industry, trade and housing sectors has doubled (30 per cent in the housing sector) in the municipal areas advised by the project.

Additional information