Rooftop, large solar projects not long term solutions: Puri

Big-sized solar power projects and residential rooftop installations are not long term solutions for India as they would result in huge cost for supplying electricity, according to Ratul Puri, Chairman, Hindustan Power Projects.
"Residential rooftop plants in any scale and size are wrong for India and I also believe that 1 GW (1,000 MW) solutions are wrong for India because there is a massive transmission cost involved," he told PTI.
He said that his views are shared by other private companies as well and have been conveyed to the government.
"We don't know whether it (view on rooftop and large size solar plants) has been appreciated or not, because once that juggernaut is moving it is not easy to slow that down," Puri said.

"Residential rooftop is the right solution for developed nations like Germany. In India they have many challenges, to start with the cost is double, Rs 14-15 is the cost of unit in residential rooftop, changing landscape around your house in the coming years, challenges in distributing power, metering etc." Puri added.
Ministry of New and Renewable Energy facilitates setting up grid connected solar rooftop as it has large potential area for generating solar power using unutilized space on rooftops.

The ministry also facilitates development of solar parks and ultra mega solar power projects in the country.
As far as ultra mega solar power projects are concerned, evacuation of power from plants would require massive transmission cost.

"The right solution for India is the distributed model, 20-100 MW, that is the quantum of energy that will get consumed locally," he added.
Meanwhile, Puri added that his company Hindustan Power Projects, which has an installed capacity of 500 MW plans to add another 1,500 MW by end of 2016.