05-05-2025
Opinion A silent solar energy revolution in J&K
Pradeep Kumar, 49, is a resident of a mountain hamlet called Kundgwari in Jammu and Kashmir's Kishtwar district — a region that, after being ravaged by terrorism in the 1990s, is now seeing peace. The first educated person in a family that has for generations subsisted on agriculture, Pradeep works as a teacher and was one of the first in his district to install a rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) system. When I asked him why he chose to spend a part of his modest income on this, the wisdom of his reply left me awestruck. 'Sir ji, I think of this money as investing in my children's financial future, I don't want to burden them, for the rest of their lives, with a monthly power bill which rises every year,' he said.
As the nation wakes up to the re-envisaged reality of solar energy today, we in the north, are better placed. In fact, J&K already has a cumulative installed capacity of around 75 MW of rooftop solar power plants. The process saw a major resurgence in recent months, all thanks to the PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana scheme. A whopping 8,000 domestic consumers across J&K have already come on board. A power-deficit region like ours, which sources a major chunk of its supply from hydroelectric power plants, has already exceeded its Renewable Power Obligation (RPO) targets. Yet, actively pushing for greater decentralised solar installations is important for us as it reduces stress on the grid. Moreover, developing mega-sized solar projects is still tough for the Union Territory – as it is for most parts of the country — given the difficulty of identifying feasible land banks (500 acres for a 100 MW solar park) in the hilly topography.
J&K's power sector, with a legacy of some of the highest aggregate technical and commercial (ATC) losses (over 50 per cent) in the country, has had one of the most interesting 'unbundling' or corporatisation journeys in India — a process intensified by the removal of Article 370. Our nascent discoms, plagued by a growing base of non-paying consumers at one point, have come a long way in the last few years in terms of loss reduction while implementing some major reforms like smart metering and prepaid billing.
Surya Ghar might be one of the highest per-individual subsidies offered by the government of India. Typically, running such a huge process with such heavy financial disbursals is tricky and leakage-prone, but the design of the scheme implementation process via the Surya Ghar 2.0 portal has become a major game-changer. It has helped cut through red tape and eradicated physical inspection steps such as approving minimal load feasibility by default. Most importantly, the heavy CFA subsidy is automatically credited to the beneficiary's bank account within a month, with no need for follow-ups.
Going beyond the dependence on consumer choice, a low-hanging fruit where governmental investment directly counts is solarisation of government buildings. We have embarked on an ambitious plan to solarise around 22,500 government buildings, out of which around 30 per cent have been solarised already, resulting in a capacity addition of 60 MW. Another aspect is the PM KUSUM scheme for solarisation of irrigation pumps, under which around 23,000 sites across J&K, ranging from the basmati belts of Jammu to the saffron fields of Pampore, are being targeted for solarisation.
A major spin-off benefit of Surya Ghar is the employment boost it has given to the local economy. Apart from panel suppliers and retailers, the Surya Ghar vendors are actively engaging a large number of youth to handle installation, maintenance and servicing of panels.
Energy independence is key to the goal of atma nirbharta as outlined by the Prime Minister. The step taken to redefine MSMEs was a major boost to private participation in solar PV manufacturing. However, in the global race to install more solar capacity, neighbouring China's burgeoning PV panel manufacturing output needs to be outscored. This can happen with local demand pushing domestic production, which has to be qualitatively strong and financially competitive enough to ensure edge against cheaper imports.
So far, the narrative around renewable energy has implied that sustainability requires compromise – financial or material. This, however, changes with Surya Ghar: Sustainability is now, in terms of investment, the economically wiser choice, and a more fashionable alternative. As I dwelt upon Pradeep's rationale behind his Suryaghar investment, I realised that we need to explore successful investment options more actively in order to ensure energy security and the atma nirbharta of our future generations. The full answer may elude us right now, but we do know that the sun will indeed shine for all eternity.
