The state government of Gujarat in India plans to launch a rooftop solar power generation scheme for slum areas.

Mohit Prasad, project manager at GlobalData, has offered his view on what this means for solar PV installations in India: 

“GlobalData forecasts solar PV installation in India to reach around 160 gigawatt (GW) by 2030. This is on back of the aggressive Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM), which targets 100GW of solar PV installations by 2022. Out of this, 40GW is the target for rooftop installations.

“Until May 2019, India witnessed cumulative solar PV rooftop installations of around 2GW. This is just five per cent of the target set for rooftop installations. With Gujarat contributing around 19 per cent of rooftop solar PV installations, the highest by any state, in India such a scheme would further foster the growth of solar installations. Other states such as Maharashtra and Rajasthan, which have good solar potential, can also introduce similar schemes in their respective states to increase their rooftop solar installations. This will eventually help India to reach its JNNSM target by 2022. 

“The introduction of the new scheme in Gujarat is an extension to the existing schemes for households with terraces and the scheme for farmers which have received modest response.”