MNRE working to bring agrivoltaics under Centre-supported scheme: Secretary Santosh Sarangi

New Delhi [India], October 19 (ANI): The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is working on a mechanism to bring agrivoltaics under a Centre-supported scheme to encourage states to adopt the model that allows farmers to generate solar power while continuing agricultural activities on the same land, MNRE Secretary Santosh Kumar Sarangi said on Monday.
Speaking to reporters ahead of a conference on agrivoltaics, Sarangi said the ministry was working with the Ministry of Finance to explore ways to provide financial support, either through an existing scheme such as PM-KUSUM or a standalone scheme.
“To nudge all the states and to provide them with some kind of an initial incentive, we are planning for a central sector scheme which will support it. And hopefully, we’ll make it part of one of our existing schemes as and when those schemes are getting revised,” Sarangi said.
He said the government was examining mechanisms to incentivise states to develop different models of agrivoltaics, adding that several states, including Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, had shown interest in the approach.
Explaining the financial challenges, Sarangi said installing solar panels on elevated structures to allow farming underneath makes agrivoltaic projects around 25-30 per cent more expensive than conventional ground-mounted solar projects.
“The objective will be to kind of neutralise or meet this gap of 25 per cent,” he said, referring to the additional cost of the infrastructure.
Agrivoltaics, also known as agri-photovoltaics, involves the co-location of solar power generation and agricultural activities on the same land, allowing farmers to continue cultivation while generating electricity.
On the suitability of crops, Sarangi said initial assessments by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) suggested that vegetables, horticultural crops and floriculture could be more suitable for cultivation under solar panels than crops such as rice, wheat and sugarcane.
“More research needs to be done, but initial results suggest that it is more suitable for vegetables, for horticultural crops, for floriculture,” he said.
He added that the findings were preliminary and that further studies were required, given India’s diverse agro-climatic conditions. The ministry is also working on crop-specific recommendations based on research conducted by IARI.
Sarangi said the model could be implemented through individual farmers, farmer-producer organisations (FPOs), cooperatives, groups of farmers or private developers leasing agricultural land on a long-term basis.
He noted that state governments would play a crucial role in scaling up the model, particularly by notifying suitable feed-in tariffs that would provide greater certainty to farmers and cooperatives considering investments.
“If the states act quickly, then five years-plus over the next five years should not be difficult, he said, indicating the potential for capacity addition, subject to states’ preparedness and tariff-related decisions.
The ministry is also working with Germany on agrivoltaics, as the country was among the early adopters of the technology, Sarangi said, adding that it was too early to comment on a possible joint project with Japan. (ANI)