Parliamentary Committee Disappointed With Ministry Over Delay In Solar Park Projects

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Earlier this year, the Government had implemented a slew of schemes to pave the way for the establishment of 50 solar parks of aggregate capacity of 40,000 MW. Needless to say, this would have brought cheer to solar power project developers while taking up the country’s solar power capacity by several notches. A few months later, however, things seem to be turning in rather slowly, as per a parliamentary committee.

The committee, headed by Janata Dal (United) MP Rajiv Ranjan Singh, has shared its disappointment at the fact that 11 of the proposed 50 proposed parks are yet to see the light of the day as the ministry has not given them a green signal. Adding the misery, these projects were to be commissioned by this year.

According to the report by the committee read as, “The committee in their recommendation had noted that out of 50, 11 solar parks were yet to get approval of the ministry even after lapse of more than three years, thereby rendering the whole exercise of setting targets meaningless when ministry-level approvals took such an unduly long time.” It further stated its disappointment “with the slow progress made as the ministry had been able to fully develop only eight solar parks in more than 5 years (2015-20)”.

The report went on to reveal that the New and Renewable Energy Ministry has responded by saying that it has given its nod for 50 solar parks of total capacity of 33.80 GW (on December 31, 2021). “Of this, only 8 parks have been completed with commissioned capacity of 6580 MW and 6 parks are partially complete with projects of 2,615 MW installed,” it stated.

The committee report expressed its discontentment with the progress of the solar parks by adding that there has been “no increase in the number of fully developed solar parks since 2020 and therefore, 42 solar parks are yet to be fully developed when the original deadline of December 2022, is knocking at the door……The ministry has neither furnished the reasons for delay in according approval to 11 solar parks at the first place, nor it has given any explanation regarding reduction in target at the level of approval itself.”

A recent parliamentary report related to renewable energy has indicated that only nine Central Public Sector Undertakings (CPSUs) had shown participation in 1000 MW CPSUs Scheme while only seven CPSUs/government organisations had participated in Phase-II of the Scheme. The report has asked public sector firms to step up efforts towards setting up solar parks, “The ministry has just provided the 14 updated data regarding participation of CPSUs in Phase-II of the Scheme, and no information about the steps taken by the Ministry to encourage more CPSUs to participate.”