Two for one

As the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi promoted a visionary idea – installing solar photovoltaic panels over India’s vast canal network. This has received a boost with the announcement of a ₹100 crore package in the recent Budget. If this money is spent via the viability gap funding mechanism as used for the recently concluded Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission phase II bids, 60-70 MW of ‘over canal’ solar power can be installed.

A McKinsey report says India needs 800 GW extra power by 2035 to achieve the targeted GDP growth; 30 per cent of India’s population, mostly in villages, does not have access to power. Also, India has 16 per cent of the world population, but only 4 per cent of global fresh water resources.

Installing solar panels over canals, village reservoirs, agriculture fields and transport corridors could generate GWs of clean energy, preserve vast tracts of land, save water from evaporation, reduce transmission and distribution losses via distributed generation and potentially increase crop yields. Incremental innovations in solar panel technology have increased panel efficiencies while prices continue to come down.

The canal networks in India are the lifeline of several communities. They can also become solar PV generation-transmission-distribution corridors. Linked with the hydroelectric generation at the dam, this could be the backbone of the renewable energy smart grid. These systems can also be the conduit for broadband connectivity to villages — a stated goal of the Government. It is estimated that installing solar panels over a 250 km canal stretch can annually generate 1GW of clean energy, save 15 million CuM of water and preserve 5,000 acres. The water saved would be enough to irrigate 7,500 acres. Reduced evaporation would also improve the water quality by reducing the alkalinity. The lack of direct sunlight on the water would restrict algae growth, a big cause of water pump damage. As solar panels gradually lose efficiency above 25 degree Celsius, it is also expected that the cooling from the water below would increase power output.

Solar panels could also be installed over village reservoirs as an off grid solution. Solar power generation could be the heart of a micro-grid network for a cluster of villages. These reservoirs could be used for pisciculture as the fish would thrive in lower temperatures. A few states have shown interest in this idea of neeche machhli upar bijli (fish below, power above). The cost of installing solar panels over canals will be 10-15 per cent higher than traditional ground-mounted projects but would be at par with or even less than rooftop solar projects.

Solar adoption in India can be truly democratised as being of the people, by the people and for the people. The MNREGA scheme can be used for the construction and maintenance of these projects. The people of the country can also finance these projects. Financial instruments can be floated to raise money for the larger utility scale, grid-connected projects while money for off-grid projects could be raised via crowdfunding.

The writer is VP (India Strategy) of P4P Energy

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