Data dive: Dark clouds hover over India’s solar story
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Recent charges of bribery by a US government agency against the Adani Group and its leadership have cast an unexpected spotlight on the Solar Energy Corporation of India—until now a relatively unknown company run by the central government. SECI was set up as an ‘implementing’ agency under the National Solar Mission.
It signs agreements to purchase solar power from private developers (such as Adani). To sell that power, it signs back-to-back agreements with power distribution companies in states. There's friction in this chain—and it's hindering India’s efforts to quickly turn its power sector away from fossil fuels and towards renewables.
According to the US agency, SECI signed a deal to buy power from the Adani Group but found it difficult to get states to buy that power. This is where the Adani Group, which has denied the allegations, was supposed to have come in. The controversy also highlighted contradictions in the Indian solar sector.
The installed capacity of solar power has soared from 2.6 gigawatts (GW) in 2014 to 92 GW in October 2024. Solar now accounts for 20% of all power capacity in India, from barely 1% a decade ago. Also read | An Opec for solar energy is a bad idea: This Chinese idea is best dropped But in terms of the actual energy generated and supplied to consumers through the grid, solar accounts for just 7% of the total energy supplied from all sources.
Solar’s share of electricity generated from renewable sources (such as wind and biomass) has also seen big fluctuations over the past few years. Of the 66 GW of solar power capacity installed as of March 2023, SECI-commissioned projects accounted for 12.6 GW. However, SECI has awarded nearly thrice that amount via
. Read more on livemint.com
