In India, the major source of electricity is from non-renewable resources like natural gas and fossil fuels.However, it is predicted that its own renewable resources will last only for a decade. Additionally, the material being imported from other countries for generating electric power add to the country’s financial burden.
As a solution to this, the Indian Government has thought of switching to a renewable energy resource. And, among all the renewable energy alternatives, the highest potential to bridge the gap between the energy demand and supply gap of electricity is in solar energy.
So, in an effort to strengthen the solar energy sector, the Indian government has taken different initiatives like offering subsidies and tax exemptions to these enterprises. Private solar companies are allowed to enjoy 5% low customs duty on solar panels and complete exemption of excise duty on solar photo-voltaic panels. Solar companies today manufacture solar rooftop panels, solar cookers, solar water pumps, solar chargers, solar lights, and many more. If you want to purchase solar panels or buy solar led outdoor lights online, you can surf through the net.
Solar potential in our country
India is ideally located in the tropics, and hence receives abundant sunshine. It gets 300-330 total clear sunny days.This makes a great potential for harnessing solar energy here. Estimates say that if rightly harnessed, solar power will be twice the current energy requirements of the country. But the thing is, currently only 2 percent of it tapped. That is, of the 749 GW annual potential here, only 2 GW is harnessed.
Our government’s initiatives for harnessing the solar potential
Even today, in our country, 35.5% of the population do have access to electricity. This means, more than 1 out of 3 citizens are still unable to meet their electricity needs. By the year 2022, Government of India has decided to generate 100GW electricityto meet the growing demand of its population. An integral part of this plan is solar power generation.So, a vital role will be played by the JNNSM or Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission in this.
If the government’s electricity production target is achieved, all kinds of power cut issues will be eliminated, and even the remotest corners of the country will receive their supply of electricity.
Manufacturers have taken good advantage of the government initiatives, and created a wide range of solar products. With ecommerce being the trend, they have entered it too. People can purchase any solar product online. For instance, you can buy solar led outdoor lights online without visiting a store.
Improvements in the solar technology, reducing its costs
When the solar panel technology was first launched, the solar panels could convert only 4 to 5% of the available energy into electricity. But there has been drastic changes in the recent years. The solar panels were improvised by 2012 to convert 5-15 % of available energy into the electricity. And, in the previous year, these were further improvised to convert more than 23% of the available energy into electricity. This significantly improved solar panels have resulted in reduced costs of implementing them.
Solar technology generating numerous jobs in our country
The “Make in India” movement undertaken by the government has helped domestic manufacturers to a lot. Since July 2014, the solar companies have been exemptedexcise and basic customs duty tax for the machinery they import for their solar electricity projects.
They say that by 2022, there will be a million more jobs in India generated by the renewable energy sector including the solar power sector. As per the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), till 2014, 400,000 jobs were generated by the renewable energy sector in the country.