India's government will be geotagging all renewable energy projects and resources with special emphasis on grid connected solar rooftop projects. An official directive of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) asks all its channel partners, state nodal agencies (SNA), public sector undertakings (PSU) and other implementing agencies to contribute to the geotagging project.
Under the new order, the ministry points out that rooftop solar (RTS) holds tremendous potential for generating decentralized and distributed solar power by utilizing the rooftop and vacant areas of industrial, commercial, residential, institutional, social and public buildings.
India targets an installed solar power capacity of 100 GW by 2022, divided between large scale solar of 60 GW and RTS capacity of 40 GW. The importance of the 40 GW grid connected RTS capacity is so high that the entire solar power project is being directly monitored by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO).
MNRE has directed all already executed projects and new projects to be geotagged. Implementing agencies will have to regularly update details of commissioned rooftop projects that have received subsidies from MNRE's SPIN portal. They will have to provide details, such as latitude/longitude of the site along with relevant photographs of the project. Moreover, the agencies have been advised to avoid duplicity in entering data by ensuring coordination between the different stakeholders.
SPIN is an online application for solar PV installations, including tools like solar rooftop calculators and information about participating agencies.
For non-subsidized projects, channel partners including new entrepreneurs will have to enter all updated details about respective commissioned projects on SPIN by October 30, 2016. Basis on their performance as seen on the portal, the government will consider renewal of channel partner certificates.
Recently, Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (BESCOM) and Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Limited (KREDL) revealed plans to conduct aerial mapping to assess PV rooftop potential in the city (see Aerial Mapping Of Bengaluru's Solar Potential).
The Indian government has been pushing the case for rooftop solar, but so far there has been limited interest among citizens to install PV on their houses. Institutional support is though pouring in slowly and steadily with corporates and other private bodies installing solar on their rooftops, along with government ensuring all government departments under various ministries go solar with rooftop PV (see Solar For Indian Government Buildings). The total installed PV capacity of India goes beyond 8 GW, but rooftop PV forms just a minuscule part of it (see South Leads In India PV Capacity).
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