Mongabay series: clean energy, just a transition

Piyush Ranjan Rout is an urban planner based in Bhubaneswar, the capital of Orissa, in the eastern coastal state of India. In 2012, he installed a 1kW off-grid solar panel on his roof. At that time, rooftop solar was still a new concept in Odisha. In 2009, after witnessing the success of solar energy in his family in the German city of Freiburg where he lived, he took the initiative to install the device as himself.

However, he said that he realized the true potential of this clean energy installation in 2019, when Hurricane Fani hit his city and his solar panels put him in a good position when facing power outages in other parts of the city.

After Fani, Bhubaneswar witnessed the complete shutdown of electricity for more than 15 days due to large-scale damage to power lines, uprooting of several large trees and other damage. The government estimates that damage to infrastructure is required at Rs. 525 million rupees (5.25 billion rupees).

"Cyclone Fani is the most recent cyclone that has severely affected Bhubaneswar and nearby cities. The city has been out of power for more than 15 days. People are trying to charge their phones, supply water, and perform other important tasks. There was hardly any movement at that time. Network or Internet facilities," Rout told Mongabay-India. Due to the off-grid advantage of solar energy supplying his home, he can obtain energy from solar energy every day and can store energy to meet his electricity needs. "After receiving a very serious cyclone warning, I removed the panels for two days and reinstalled them after the cyclone ended. By that time, the power lines of the entire city were cut off. However, with solar energy, I You can charge your phone, use broadband Internet, use fans and other electrical appliances, which became a luxury in the days after Hurricane Fani hit the state," he shared.

He also helps many of his neighbors charge their phones and share the Internet, all of which are supported by the limited solar energy generated by his solar panels.

Rout belongs to the category of "Producers and Consumers". In the energy field, it refers to the category of individuals/organizations that are both energy producers and consumers.

Read: Solar energy may become a reliable energy alternative in Uttarakhand

Another example of a prosumer is JK Rath, an industrialist in his 60s in Mancheswar, Bhubaneswar, who also got rid of electricity due to the solar energy generated by the rooftop solar power system during Cyclone Fani. Dilemma.

"During the hurricane, many solar grid-connected consumers did not get much benefit, because when there is a power outage, there is usually no mechanism to store energy in the home. However, with the help of the solar installation agency, I connected the power to my Inverters are therefore able to stay connected to electricity during a power outage caused by the cyclone. Although most homes in the city have been out of power for several weeks, thanks to solar energy, we are able to use electricity,” Rath told Mongabay-India.

Rath, who has installed a 3kW rooftop solar power system, also claims that by switching to solar energy, he can save more on electricity bills. "Three years ago, I installed a solar roof to reduce electricity bills. The results exceeded my expectations. Earlier, I used to pay about Rs. 4,200. The monthly electricity bill was 5,000 yuan. But when installing solar panels, After connecting it to the grid and switching to a net metering system, I now only pay about Rs. 700. 1,000 times a month," he added.

Grid-connected customers usually cannot store solar energy in their homes because their excess products go to power distribution companies (discoms). During power outages, not much solar energy is stored in the home or transmitted to discoms. However, some grid-connected customers are also adding storage units to help them with power outages during the disaster.

Under the net metering system, for grid-connected customers, the household first consumes the solar energy generated every day, and then obtains the remaining electricity from the traditional grid system. Sometimes, when the generation of solar panels on the roof exceeds the consumption, the extra energy generated by the household will be output to the discoms. At the end of the month, consumers have to pay for the net electricity they consume from discoms, deducting the solar energy they consume and the extra solar energy output to the discoms by the household, which often leads to a reduction in electricity bills.

The solar energy development agency of Odisha states that since the state is vulnerable to power outages caused by hurricanes and disasters, they are now providing additional solar storage facilities that even grid-connected customers can use on demand.

"The demand for solar roofs has increased in the past five years," said Jayant Sahoo, an engineer at Solar Sack, a solar developer agency certified by the Odisha State Renewable Energy Department. "After Fani, many households realized the importance of solar roofs in disasters such as hurricanes, and their demand has escalated. Now, we are providing grid-connected solar customers with additional energy storage battery systems so that they can consider the disaster situation. Prepare for household energy needs in the event of a situation,” he told Mongabay-India.

Sahoo cited several examples of how solar consumers solved power problems during Hurricane Fani, showed customers' electricity bills, and cited their bill differences after switching to clean energy. However, he claimed that the demand for rooftop solar energy is mainly in urban areas, while in rural areas, the industry has not been able to expand due to frequent power outages and low ability to pay.

In addition to residential and individual customers in Odisha benefiting from reduced electricity bills, there are also institutional beneficiaries of solar roof projects, who can save hundreds of thousands of rupees each year.

For example, Shankar Eye Hospital in Hinjlicut is the first institutional solar roof beneficiary in the Ganjam district of Odisha, which is represented by Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister of Odisha. It installed 150 kilowatts of solar panels on the campus in 2017 and now claims to have saved approximately Rs. After switching to solar energy, 1 million (one million) per year.

"Last year, 71% of our energy needs were met only by solar energy, while in previous years, more than 60% of our energy came from solar energy. After switching to solar energy, we can now save approximately Rs. Rs. S. Shankar, Secretary and Trustee of the Shankar Eye Hospital. Visvanathan told Mongabay-India.

He said that his organization invested approximately Rs. One crore rupees (10 million rupees) is used to install solar panels, of which, Rs. Received 2.5 million (2.5 million rupees) as government subsidies. In the past three years, his organization has been able to save rupees. By partially switching to solar energy, their electricity bills have been reduced by 2.5 million. He predicts that in the next three years, they will recover their investment costs and even profit from the clean energy transition.

Read: Solar energy helps farmers irrigate fields in Bastal, where water is scarce

The state government claims that under the solar roof plan of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), the government provides subsidies to interested individuals who wish to install solar energy. "The program is working well in the state. The state's total energy production of more than 8 MW was completed only by roof panels in the first phase of the program. Now, subsidies and payment for the overall roof project have been handed over to discoms. Customers are free They choose the solar developer agency of their choice from the list of government-certified agencies,” Ashok Choudhury, co-director of the Orissa State Renewable Energy Development Agency (OREDA), told Mongabay-India.

The state government has also been trying to use solar energy and other forms of renewable energy to switch to a clean energy system. According to the latest available data from the Central Power Authority (CEA), the total installed capacity of renewable energy in Odisha is 590 MW, while the total installed capacity of power companies (thermal and renewable energy) is 7,768 MW.

However, the expansion of rooftop solar in the state has some challenges. Some customers claimed that the subsidy payment in the program took a long time, resulting in reduced interest.

The higher installation cost of solar panels is also one of the factors. The solar panels installed in the state are about Rs per kilowatt. 45,000. The non-use of solar energy for grid-connected households during the power outage also seems to be a negative factor in the spread of the plan. So far, due to cost and many other factors, the plan seems to be limited to urban areas.

Banner image: A professional consumer of solar roof shows his installation in his home in Bhubaneswar. The photo was taken by Manish Kumar.

Mongabay-India is a conservation and environmental news and feature service designed to provide high-quality original reports from the front lines of nature in India.