Solar and Wind Energy

RREC registers and approves projects, develops solar parks and ultra mega renewable energy power parks, recommends allotment of government land, and helps secure power evacuation approval.

The goal is split three ways — 65,000 MW of solar, 15,000 MW of wind and hybrid, and 10,000 MW of hydro, pumped storage plants and battery energy storage systems.

The minimum capacity for such projects is 0.5 MW. Sited close to load centres they cut transmission and distribution losses, and farmers may set them up on their own uncultivable land.

Issued as notification F.20(13)Energy/2023 by the Energy Department, it replaced the Solar and the Wind and Hybrid Energy Policies of 2019 and stays in force until superseded.

The assessment is recorded in the Rajasthan Renewable Energy Policy, 2023. The same policy promotes repowering of wind turbines that have completed at least ten years in operation.

The figure rests on the state's intense solar radiation, its high count of sunny days through the year, and the large stretches of barren, uncultivable government and private land available.

Under the policy RREC develops renewable energy parks on its own or through such a vehicle. Parks may also be built by private developers or through joint ventures with the state government.

Bhadla lies within a fully operational solar park spread over about 5,700 hectares. Rajasthan offers large tracts of government land at competitive rates for parks of this kind.

The state's named clusters are the Bhadla solar park, the Jaisalmer wind energy cluster, Barmer solar and wind, the Phalodi-Pokhran solar cluster, and Pugal and Khuiyala in Bikaner.

Installed solar capacity in the state stands at 22,860.73 MW. Vast barren stretches of the Thar Desert and strong solar radiation make it India's best-suited state for utility-scale solar.

Installed wind capacity in the state is 5,195.82 MW. Jaisalmer, Barmer and Jodhpur see consistent strong wind currents, which is why most wind projects sit in western Rajasthan.

In 2023 Rajasthan held the country's highest grid-connected renewable capacity at 22,398 MW, with Gujarat next at 19,436 MW, the lead resting mainly on solar and wind.

The remaining roughly 78.79 per cent comes from conventional sources. Among the major states Rajasthan has recorded the highest annual growth in installed renewable capacity, at 18.63 per cent.

Alongside the long hours of sun, Rajasthan receives solar radiation averaging 6 to 7 kWh per square metre per day, among the best conditions in India for large solar installations.

The corridor is a network of grid sub-stations built to integrate solar and wind generation, most of which is concentrated in western Rajasthan where land and resource conditions are strongest.

The policy also gives renewable projects full exemption from land tax for seven years, a waiver of banking charges, and relief on transmission, distribution and cross-subsidy surcharges.

Hybrid projects make better use of land and transmission systems and steady the grid. The policy also encourages hybridising existing wind or solar plants and conventional thermal stations.

The policy aims to develop district headquarters as Green Energy Cities through rooftop systems. Under gross metering, where all output goes to the DISCOM, rooftop plants up to 1 MW are allowed.

The policy sets storage at X/2 MWh, where X is the project's installed capacity in MW. For a standalone battery system, at least 85 per cent of the energy stored over a year must come from renewable sources.

The charge runs at Rs 50,000 per hectare per year and applies to projects selling power to parties other than the Rajasthan DISCOMs. Projects supplying the state DISCOMs are exempt from it.