ISA Hosts Capacity Building Workshop on Demand Aggregation Models for Scaling Rooftop Solar Adoption – Learnings from India
#InternationalSolarAlliance #ISA #RooftopSolarAdoption“These campaigns leverage peer-to-peer influence and provide end-to-end support to consumers to start their solar journey. These models have relevance beyond India, and insights from Indian experience could be used to roll out these models in other developing countries.” - Bhawna Tyagi, Programme Associate, CEEW
June 2023 : International Solar Alliance (ISA), in collaboration with Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) and US Department of State, hosted a capacity building workshop on ‘Demand Aggregation Models for Scaling Rooftop Solar Adoption – Learnings from India’. Accelerating the adoption of distributed solar, particularly rooftop solar, is crucial for countries to achieve a democratic transition to clean energy. The session highlighted important aspects of Distributed Renewable Energy (DRE), which will help bring the energy transition closer to communities. The session also explored innovative approaches to accelerate the adoption of distributed renewable energy. The participants include officials from ministries, regulatory bodies, and utility companies.
The workshop helped participants with insights on the two business models – Solarise, a demand aggregation campaign focusing on urban communities and Community Solar, focusing on rural and semi-urban communities. The Solarise campaigns were supported by distribution utilities from Delhi – BSES Rajdhani and BSES Yamuna Power Limited. The panellists discussed challenges, opportunities, and presented policy recommendations for accelerating the adoption of distributed solar.
Alexander Hogeveen Rutter, Private Sector Specialist, ISA, highlighting the benefits of rooftop solar, said, “Rooftop solar is a huge opportunity for a win-win-win for distribution utilities, consumers, regulators and local employment. Today’s webinar gave great insights in how to capture the benefits of rooftop solar, lowering costs for consumers, but also the subsidy burden on the distribution utilities. The Solarise Delhi presentation helped chart a path for distribution utilities around the world to promote solar in their home areas. ISA is looking forward to continuing to support its member countries in deploying solar rooftops.”
Scott E. Woodard, Acting Director, U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Energy Resources, highlighted U.S. Government’s support for ISA’s ambitious work to accelerate the clean energy transition through solar deployment initiatives across the world. He also noted that “our joint work on the solarize campaign guidebook and community solar is a testament to the partnership between India and the United States in addressing the shared global challenges that guide our bilateral energy relationship.” “These institutional frameworks, business models, and solar initiatives, tested in the India context, offer persuasive, value-added lessons for other countries,” he added.
Joseph Pereira, Deputy Director, Department of Regulatory Agencies, Colorado “The adoption and proliferation of medium-scale community solar offerings in Colorado and across the United States has provided the opportunity for utilities to engage distributed energy resources that support the grid through resiliency support while moving toward clean energy goals. These applications have proven to provide customers financial benefits while also supporting the financial health of the utility. The flexibility of this type of solar application has proven to work in a variety of contexts and has great potential for growing and transitioning energy economies.”
“The Solarise Delhi programs have once again proven everything we continue to see in the United State,” said Brian F Keane, President, SmartPower. “Our Solarise campaigns dramatically increase residential solar adoption on a massive scale. Let’s now commit ourselves to Solarising not just New Delhi – but all of India!”
Bhawna Tyagi, Programme Associate, CEEW, sharing insights from India on demand aggregation models, said, “Distributed solar provides an opportunity for communities to be part of the energy transition. Tapping into this potential requires moving beyond traditional models and exploring innovative business models. Community solar models provide rural consumers with low-cost solar while playing a catalytic role in the financial turnaround of the power distribution utilities. These campaigns leverage peer-to-peer influence and provide end-to-end support to consumers to start their solar journey. These models have relevance beyond India, and insights from Indian experience could be used to roll out these models in other developing countries.”
Neeraj Kuldeep, Senior Programme Lead, CEEW. “For developing economies, distributed solar offers the opportunity to embrace two energy transitions together – providing access to electricity to millions, and transition to clean energy. However, communities face multitude of challenges in adoption of distributed RE – awareness and confidence in the technology, high upfront cost of adoption, limited access to affordable financing etc. The two innovative demand aggregation models discussed during the workshop will be a big step towards addressing the multiple impediments to the transition towards distributed RE among communities be it rural or urban. We hope the countries will leverage these models to chart a community driven energy transition.”
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