We are think Grid Centric when we don't have the full Grid network. 300 watt panels will not replace 1000 MW power plants. Too much policy leads to natural movement distortions. We have reached grid parity. Now just need to find out that we have. I talked to a guy in finance co and asked him how he would react to a proposal which involved 4 year payback period + 80% accelerated depreciation in the 1st year. He said WOW and asked if there was any. I told him solar thermal and he said RE is dicey. Since XYZ and ABC did some scam. Promised outputs were never delivered, blah, bla, bla. I told him to divide his doubts and analyze them - 1. human factor, 2. Sun. He did not get the point.

Reversal for Gujarat projects (rs.15/kwh), 100 MW reliance solar (rs 17.91), 1 MW IREDA solar pv projects (rs.18.3/kwh) showed some values on papers, but, during execution, the CAPEX was much less, which itself can amount to miss-leading the government and hence Nation. If you include the Tax loss due to the Clause of 80% of solar pv project value as the Accelerated Depreciation, it is a great loss to the Nation...

In solar farms and net metering systems there is an interface available that stops transmitting electric power to the grid when the grid shows it is not working. This system is digital and works. On solar farms the big inverters have this feature built into the system. I am sorry that most people just don't understand fail safe systems.

When a net metering system is installed. The system detects if the grid us working or not. Sometimes this is done automatically but in the case of an off the grid solar system this is not needed at all. I guess the best part of an off the grid solar system is a buzz words called "Energy Independence".

In my understanding, Solar off grid business model is an entirely different ball game which definitely needs capital subsidy, VGF, etc. Just the interest subsidy in off grid application would not suffice. In absence of capital subsidy and VGF, 400 million people in India would continue to be deprived of Electricity, as has been in the last 66 years since Independence and the number would increase as population grows.

In India these roof top / off grid systems are messed up completely....No sustain ability... Villagers have stopped paying as the Gynesh Pandey's (Husk Power) business model of two bulbs or three bulb connection which works out to be rs.40/kwh to rs.60/kwh(!!) was understood by villagers and no force can be used as it happened in Bihar (micro finance people used to extort high interest, now, Government rules have been strict against such extortion) so, villagers are drawing power, not paying or at times asking the adventurous Entrepreneur to take away the equipment etc..

The RESCOS have taken Accelerated Depreciation by supplying to few offices (private PPA), but, unsustainable pricing or business model. So, in INDIA, only Tax AVOIDANCE policies will not find any kind of sustainability, like what happened in WIND energy.... many companies, never bothered to know where were their wind machines, but, were only interested in adjusting the books for Accelerated Depreciation...

Government of India should encourage all states to promulgate rules and regulations to speed up rooftop grid connected solar installations. By this approach they can generate electricity at the point of consumption, and not at far away places and bring it to towns and villages. There will be lot of savings in this process.

70% of India's population lives villages. India can think of popularizing grid connected system wherever utility lines are available. Government should earmark more funds for rural electrification to run distribution lines so that villagers can be attracted to install grid connected systems.

The cost of solar energy is falling at 7% per annum and cost of grid energy is rising at the rate of 3% per annum (Internationally). Cost of coal will shoot up faster in the coming years because coal mines are being auctioned off. This will reflect on the cost of fossil fuel energy. A faster rate of depletion of coal will accelerate rise in coal price and it may reach prohibitive levels in the next two decades. It is observed that coal consumption doubles in ten every years. It is assessed that India's coal reserve will reach half of its present 104 Billion Tons if the development of coal mining continues at the present level. This is an alarming situation. Cost of coal is the deciding factor for cost of fossil fuel energy.

The large, grid connected solar plants do not have a great future in India as the grid is too weak to support a significant ramp up of unscheduled power. Household level applications will play a role. They will be important to the individual household, but less significant in terms of contributing to the overall energy requirements of India. My guess is that captive solutions (actually also large captive solutions) for villages, cities, industries, areas will be the main application of solar. We will see local energy concepts which integrate solar with other locally available sources (and perhaps grid power).