India’s total capacity to produce energy is around 124,000MW. 60% of this is coming from coal, 25% from hydro power and the remaining from other sources. It is estimated that India will have sudden shortage of 70,000MW in near future. Power produced by coal leads to various environmental risks and that from hydro results in soil erosion, degradation etc. So Indian Government has put generation of power by renewable resources on its main agenda now. There is increased demand for solar energy in India, companies are generating profits so it is expected that the solar panels cost in India will go down in future.
The only problem with solar power is that it is slightly more expensive than conventional sources of energy. This is because the process of making a PV solar cell is complicated and delicate. The semi conductor used in PV cell is silicon which has complicated production procedure so scientists are looking into other semi conductors like amorphous silicon and cadmium telluride (CdTe) for the same purpose. The price of solar panel in India is between Rs 90- Rs 130 per watt. The solar energy is measured in price per Watt Peak (Wp). The prices for high power usage solar panels has come down from Rs 1200 per Wp in 1982 to Rs 200 per Wp today and is further expected to fall in recent times due to new technologies coming up.
For having solar panel system installed you are required to own a house as would not like to install it in a rented house. Installation of panel depends on various factors like the angle of your roof, the climate of your area, electrical use, shade you are having etc.
Researchers and environmentalists in India are encouraging different financial institutions in country to make finances available to homeowners who want to harness the power of solar energy. Government is also in process to provide incentives to homeowners to set up PV cell panels. Main cost in solar energy setup for homeowners is that of buying and installing the panels. However there is little maintenance cost also involved but in comparison to the benefits from solar energy it is negligible. According a global survey the prices of solar panels have declined at the rate of 4% per year.
The exact figure of solar panel array needed can be reached by multiplying your daily electrical usage in KwH by 0.25 and you will get approximate size of your solar panel array in KW. The extra energy you produce can also be sold back to the company by a process called Net Metering. In this process if a consumer has solar panel system installed at home that is connected to utility grid. Then the surplus energy can be redirected back into the utility grid and consumers meter moves backward. Both residences and small scale enterprises have a KWH meter installed which moves backward and forward according to the need of consumer. Following Net Metering the meter moves forward when there is requirement of energy and backward when there is surplus energy. For example if your energy need is high during morning and evening and almost negligible during the day because you are at work then what happens to energy produced by solar panels during that time. The energy is sold to utility grid company for their use.
In July 2009 India proposed a $19 billion plan to produce 20 GW of solar energy by the year 2020.According to this plan solar equipments would be installed in all Government buildings including hospitals and hotels. In November 2009, it was decided that India would produce 1,000MW of solar power by 2013 under its National Action Plan on climate change. The ministry of new and renewable energy (The MNRE) has decided to initiate various subsidies and tax rebates, soft loans, excise duty exemptions on some devices and concessional duty on raw material imports etc as the major steps towards increasing use of renewable sources.
Thus we conclude that due to new technical developments the price of PV cells are declining and hence resulting in rising use of solar energy in India.