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India's solar tariff at historic low

Is that a price from the producer direct to the customer or thats the price paid by the government?
That is the price distribution company pays. In most cases( except cities like Mumbai), it is some state government owned company.

Next step, rooftop solar panels connected to grid.
The step is already being implemented in some states. You get 50% subsidy for the installation. The meter will track both power generated and consumed. It can even contribute back to the grid/line.
Once installed, if your panels produce more electricity than your house consumes, you get paid per unit contributed. :woot:
 
The step is already being implemented in some states. You get 50% subsidy for the installation. The meter will track both power generated and consumed. It can even contribute back to the grid/line.
Once installed, if your panels produce more electricity than your house consumes, you get paid per unit contributed. :woot:

This is the holy grail really. They have that in America, and we are seeing an explosion of companies that actually offer to set-up solar roof panels in your home FOR FREE, and then they take the profit generated from excess power that is fed back into the grid, while you get to save a lot of money on electricity. It will never be able to fully replace the solar power parks, but it is a huge step forward for mass production and bringing down costs.
 
The step is already being implemented in some states. You get 50% subsidy for the installation. The meter will track both power generated and consumed. It can even contribute back to the grid/line.
Once installed, if your panels produce more electricity than your house consumes, you get paid per unit contributed. :woot:

That's a good model because no large land acquisition would be required, and most of the infrastructure cost, capacity build up, maintenance, management, etc. will be decentralized to the individual owners. Do you have any idea about the tentative cost (after subsidy) and ROI?

All that requires massive investments in smart grid/metering and are frankly an overkill for simple Indian homes.

But as a simple, cost-effective first step, there are already enough things that Home Rooftop Solar Panels can accomplish even when not connected to the grid.

Another way to drive down costs, is to do away with the large storage batteries. You could simply use the electricity when sunlight is available (energy guzzlers like AC's and their kind) and switch back to grid when it isn't.

That way, not only the installation costs/complexity are reduced significantly but also the day-time peak load is taken care of, to a large extent!

What will be the cost of such up-gradation? Maybe new technological development can drive down the cost, like that happened in telecom.
 
That's a good model because no large land acquisition would be required, and most of the infrastructure cost, capacity build up, maintenance, management, etc. will be decentralized to the individual owners. Do you have any idea about the tentative cost (after subsidy) and ROI?
The investment is one time, but still high as of today. I am posting the links for AP. But I found out about similar scheme initially in some other state. The FAQs are better here:

::APEPDCL::

https://www.apcentralpower.com/framework/skins/CPDCL_SKIN/Pdfs/FAQ.pdf

New & Renewable Energy Development Corporation of Andhra Pradesh Ltd., (NREDCAP)
 
What will be the cost of such up-gradation? Maybe new technological development can drive down the cost, like that happened in telecom.

Oh, I think investment into smart grids needs hundreds of billions of dollars.

Smart Grid Costs Are Massive, but Benefits Will Be Larger, Industry Study Says - NYTimes.com

But then again, India simply lacks any sort of grid in vast parts of her hinterland. And we will have to invest in smart grid tomorrow if not today and in a way, we could simply jump right to installing smart grids skipping the traditional grids altogether. But I suspect it is going to be a long way away considering the investments needed.

My point is, we shouldn't let the 'best' be the enemy of the 'good'. The rooftop panels, even without any smart grids, can do so much to alleviate our energy hunger and should be encouraged for all households and every farmer's irrigation pump connected with solar panels.
 
The next time anyone goes off-topic, it's a several day ban.
 

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