Solar Energy Deployment and India's Sustainable Energy Transition: A Technical Assessment

Abstract

Solar energy has emerged as one of the most important renewable resources for achieving sustainable development. Solar energy offers a clean, abundant, and environmentally responsible solution to growing global energy demands. This shows increasing importance of solar energy in sustainable development strategies. Among the renewable sources, solar energy is leading in India both in terms of installed capacity and electricity generation from the source. Given this increasing importance of solar energy in India’s energy mix, it become necessity to study how efficiently solar energy systems convert available inputs into useful energy outputs. The study uses Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for some selected states. The states have been selected based on their performance in terms of installed solar capacity, showing leadership in renewable energy adoption and infrastructure development. Nine states are selected in the study from different regions based on their highest installed capacity in the specific regions. From the northern region Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh are selected as they possess highest installed capacity for solar in the region. From the western region Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra are selected. From the southern region Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh are selected. From the eastern region only Odisha was selected. From north-eastern region no state is selected as they lack behind in installed capacity of solar energy. The study is based on three specific indicators such as solar installed capacity, plant load factor (PLF) and electricity generation from solar energy sources. PCA is applied in the study to generate specific composite score for each state and rank them based on those composite scores. These rankings shows how each state is performing and which factor is mainly responsible for its performance. Secondary data is used in the study compiled from different sources, such as Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), NITI Aayog Energy Dashboard and Central Electricity Authority (CEA). The results of the study shows that solar performance among selected states are primarily driven by electricity generation from solar energy and Installed capacity. The PLF variable in PC1 shows relatively moderating loading, showing lower contribution to solar development. But in PC2 primarily driven variable is PLF, showing operational efficiency of solar power plants. The composite solar index scores of different states shows that Rajasthan ranks first with composite score of 2.70, showing it performs best in terms of solar energy among the selected states. The performance attributed to its high installed capacity, significant electricity generation and high PLF, even supported by favourable solar potential. Karnataka ranked second with the composite score of 1.01 showing its good performance followed by Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.