Indian state Kerala targets 1,500MW by 2030 - SolarStar

The government of Kerala, India, has released a draft solar policy, effective 1 April 2013, having set itself a target of 500MW to be achieved by 2017 and 1,500MW by 2030.

Policies have been laid out for off-grid rooftop systems, grid-connected small-scale systems, off-site generation, for example on wasteland, as well as off-shore generating plants, predominantly for solar thermal systems. A storage and Balance of Supply (BoS) programme will also be implemented.

In January, the Kerala State Electricity Board was reported to have been seeking approval for proposals to install 300MW of off-grid PV  and has submitted plans to the Indian state’s electricity regulatory commission in a bid to promote off-grid PV installations  with battery storage as a back up as an alternative method of generating power to meet the state’s electricity demand.

According to Hari Manoharan from Indian consulting firm RESolve, this will alleviate the region’s energy deficit. In his blog, Manoharan writes, “The Kerala government has been taking significant strides in promoting the use of solar in the state. Previous announcements such as the 10,000 rooftop solar and the 75,000 rooftop solar program aims at proliferating the use of solar in the state.”

The 10,000 rooftop solar programme was launched earlier this month by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and has been estimated to cost over INR175 crores (US$3.2 million).