India Agrivoltaics Alliance to be launched today

Subject: Science and Tech

Section: Health

Context:

The National Solar Energy Federation of India (NSEFI) will launch the ‘India Agrivoltaics Alliance’ in Delhi.

India Agrivoltaics Alliance (IAA):

Launched by: NSEFI
Aim: To bring together all stakeholders across the value chain in the solar and agricultural sectors, including industry associations, research institutes, financial institutions, think-tanks, civil societies and farmer producer organisations.
Supported by: India Climate Collaborative (ICC) and Bloomberg Philanthropies.

What will the alliance do?

The alliance will examine agri-voltaics closely, checking out which crops are best under a given situation. Companies like ITC, Nestle and Reliance, which procure agricultural produce from farmers, can also buy solar electricity.
Farmer producer organizations( FPOs) can also put up agri voltaics.

What is Agri Voltaics?

Agri-voltaics is the “in-thing” in the solar industry; it refers to the practice of putting up solar panels at a certain height and with such an architecture as to allow cultivation of crops underneath them.
- The federation is convinced that there is a net gain in agri-voltaics, when the additional costs are compared with the incremental gains from both solar and agriculture.
A few agri-voltaic projects have happened in India. A recent compendium of 20-odd agri-voltaic projects in India, brought out by NSEFI and the Indo German Energy Forum shows that the total capacity of agri-voltaics in India is under 10 MW.
Agri-voltaic projects in India: at Cochin Airport (biggest one), 1 MW plant of Abellon Energy in the Aravalli district of Gujarat, built in 2012 (oldest in India).
Water used for cleaning the panels goes for watering the plants—turmeric, ginger, watermelon and bottle gourd.

National Solar Energy Federation of India (NSEFI)

NSEFI is India’s solar policy advocacy body and an umbrella organisation representing solar energy companies that are active along the whole Solar value chain comprising of leading International, National, and regional companies including Solar Developers, Manufactures, EPC Contractors, Rooftop Installers, System Integrators, Manufacturers, Small and Medium Enterprises.
NSEFI’s vision to make Solar Energy affordable in India is now achieved in less than a decade since India started accelerating its Solar energy installations.
NSEFI works in a complimentary manner with Central and State Governments to achieve India’s National targets of 100 GW by 2022&Renewable Target of 450 GW by 2030.
NSEFI’s efforts have culminated into making India’s solar a successful growth story where India is today the 5th Largest country in terms of installed solar capacity.