There was a time few years back, when rooftop solar projects were encouraged by the Government and was rapidly adopted in a few states of Gujarat, Maharashtra & Karnataka. The Government had provided subsidies to parties who opted for rooftop solar and the grid dependency was also capped at 20% i.e. owners of rooftop Solar could opt to be 80% Solar Energy dependent and 20% Grid dependent. However, over the years, although the Govt. remains progressive in its approach regarding renewable energy, it has realised a drop in revenue in the power sector due to the massive adoption of rooftop solar and gradual independence from the grid. This situation has prompted the Govt. in Gujarat to cap Solar Power dependency at 50% for new roof top solar projects, so that 50% of the power is still procured from the grid, thereby balancing out the revenue.
Net Metering is another point of concern for states with high concentration of solar rooftop projects. Up until now as per net metering guidelines, owners of rooftop solar projects are duly compensated for the excess power produced by balancing out the charges of power consumed from the grid. In this case the owners of rooftop solar power plants, utilise the solar power produced and then sell the excess to the Govt. This has led to more and more people adopting net metering which is again lowering the revenue of the power sector. States like Maharashtra have have now proposed to move to Gross Metering, whereby the power produced by the owners of rooftop solar power plants will be bought by the Grid, before in-house utilisation, at a rate decided by the Govt. and then sold to the owners again at a fixed tariff. This will be a major drawback for rooftop solar power producers.
Judging by the current situation, it is quite imperative that other state Governments might also follow suite and shift towards capping solar energy dependency and adopt Gross Metering policies, thereby, safeguarding the power sectors revenue. Hence, for states where rooftop solar is still in its early adoption phases, it is advisable that consumers interested in shifting towards solar energy, do so now. Otherwise, the purpose of installing a rooftop solar power plant might be defeated in the near future.
Source: https://mercomindia.com/net-metering-drag-rooftop-solar-growth/, www.gsev.com
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