India's Hopes to Replace Diesel with Renewable Energy in Farms Rides on Solar, Mostly

India’s ambitions to switch from diesel to renewable energy for its farming sector have been making headlines. Following a comment made by Power and MNRE Minister R.K. Singh during a meeting with officials on Friday, the headlines have taken off. What the headlines don’t say is how much this hope is reliant on two key things. The continuous growth of solar to new roles and regions, as well as, perhaps more crucially, the role that states will play in the future. Without a doubt, success on this front will highlight India’s renewable energy push like nothing else.

Even though the central government has done an outstanding job facilitating utility-scale solar projects through a variety of measures, the COP26-led aim of an additional 300 GW by 2030 will necessitate more than just the massive utility park method. Even if major parks in Rajasthan, Gujarat, and even Ladakh stay the course, initiatives like PM KUSUM, which have a 30 GW or higher aim by 2024 or early, would need to provide the biggest boost. And, as we’ve seen so far, PM KUSUM’s performance is virtually entirely dependent on state governments and their policies.

States like Haryana, which have a high success rate with off-grid solar pumps (component B), have added their subsidy top-ups to encourage faster adoption, reducing farmer contributions to less than 25% in some situations.

Although tendering activity has increased, development on PMKUSUM’s major components A and C, which are grid-connected choices for ground-mounted solar and grid-connected solar pumps, has been slow. In the end, the performance of these two components will determine whether our agriculture sector can make the transition from diesel to renewable energy.

This effort is particularly crucial for smaller manufacturing firms on the domestic front, as they prepare for the arrival of larger players after the PLI scheme, thanks to their ALMM needs for domestic components.

Critical agricultural regions, particularly the huge states of Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal in East India, as well as UP, MP, and others, must develop much faster. The demand on land resources, distribution, and supply infrastructure for solar, and even political buy-in are all obstacles for these states to a speedier adoption.

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Resource: Saur Energy