The 34 planned solar parks in India earmarked for 20 GW of solar PV capacity under the country’s National Solar Mission (NSM) care running into a multitude of problems born not of solar-specific issues, but rather infrastructural problems and land acquisition delays, says Mercom Capital Group.
According to the analysts, an inability among implementing agencies to complete normal land registration procedures in time has led to developers winning bids but being unable to begin solar park construction due to the red tape and, in places, inadequate infrastructure.
Solar parks are planned for 21 Indian states, with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) mulling increasing their total capacity to 40 GW.
The scheme is part of a program whereby developers can freely build a series of large-scale solar PV plants on land pre-identified by the government. It is intended to boost both domestic manufacturing – with locally produced components given access to the projects – and India’s grander goal of reaching that 100GW of solar PV by 2022 figure.
Recent auctions for solar park projects have been held in somewhat of a hurry as the government ushers through approvals for solar development before they have even completed land acquisition, Mercom Capital says. This is storing up delays of up to four and five months.
The MNRE has urged the heads of state governments to take all necessary action to expedite this process to ensure the country’s bold solar target is not missed
By Baishakhi Dutta
