Allotment of Waste and Degraded Land Parcels for PV Based Solar Parks in India.

What is it about?

Solar parks are well-defined areas developed in the high solar potential area, with the required infrastructure to minimize the potential threat for the developers. Land occupancy is a major concern for the solar park. The government policy mostly emphasizes the use of waste-degraded land for solar parks. In a competitive energy market, any attempt to use waste-degraded land parcels, without policy regulatory support, can bring large-scale disruptions in the quality and cost of power. The present study investigates the potential of using waste degraded land, with a focus on the impact on the cost of generation and decision making. The study investigates the possibility of including the cost of the externalities in the overall cost economics, through policy and regulatory interventions. Data related to India has been considered in the present analysis. Results show that there are less socio-economic and ecological impacts in using wastelands, compared to land, in urban-semi urban areas with an opportunity cost. Thus, the policy and regulatory interventions could promote wasteland utilization and lure favorable decision-making on investments.

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Why is it important?

A solar park is a fast and effective method to integrate clean energy, as a substitute for fossil fuel, into the grid. The type of land, business model, land acquiring method, and proximity to grid infrastructure are key factors that dictate the unit cost of power generation in ground-mounted solar plants. Ground-mounted solar plants need a large amount of land area, with the possibility of socio-economic and ecological impacts, depending on the location of the plant. Land occupancy for long periods, as well as land transformation from its original nature, are key factors that contribute to these environmental impacts. The impact of such externalities is complex to account for, considering the uncertainty, plurality, and lack of a single monetary measure standard. India is a geographically diverse country, with a vast amount of waste degraded land parcels, spread in different agroeconomic regions. Though large patches of these waste lands have good solar irradiation, their use for solar projects can have additional capital, i.e., operation expenses to overcome challenges posed by land terrain and infrastructural facilities for power evacuation. As one of the largest GHG emitters, India is committed to achieve 175 GW of renewable energy, of which, 100 GW will be solar power [1]. In a competitive energy market, the use of such land parcels can have disruptions in energy mix on volume and price, derailing commitments on global warming.

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