Context
The Government of India has set an ambitious target of achieving carbon neutrality by the year 2070. To succeed, India will need an estimated 1,689 gigawatts (GW) of solar capacity by 2050 and 5,630 GW of solar capacity by 2070. This, however carries along two major challenges.
- Presently, the major contributors of solar PV installations across India are ground-mounted or rooftop installations. These conventional methods of solar adoption rely heavily on land utilisation and can only address the target in part.
- Additionally, land use for energy generation is increasingly facing competition from other social or economic usages that directly affect natural habitats and ecosystems. There are also growing concerns about the scarcity of utilisable land being allocated for solar projects.
This makes it necessary to explore new innovative technology solutions for solar PV projects in India.
Objective
India is improving its regulatory, technological and distributional conditions concerning land requirements for the expansion of climate-friendly production of solar energy.
