Rooftop Solar Cuts Household Electricity Bills by Average of 71%: CEEW

Rooftop solar installations are becoming increasingly critical for Indian homes and the domestic power grid, to reduce utility costs, according to a new pan-India survey by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), reported HT.

The CEEW study said that about 81% of households willing to adopt rooftop solar cited a reduction in electricity bills as their primary motivation. For those who have already transitioned, it said, the technology delivered an average 71% reduction in monthly power bills.

The newspaper noted that the consumer survey report was released to commemorate two years of the Pradhan Mantri Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana (PMSGY).

According to the study, the residential rooftop solar growth in India accelerated from a 45% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2017 and 2023 to an 85% CAGR between 2024 and 2026.

CEEW’s consumer-side survey on residential RTS is the first since the launch of the PMSGY. It is based on a pan-India survey of over 17,000 households across 22 states covering 308 districts, and examines how households understand, evaluate, and navigate RTS adoption

India’s Renewables Set to be Curtailed Even Without Grid Constraints 

With power surpluses projected to range between 48 GW and 115 GW due to changes in the technical minimum generation level of coal-based power stations, India may have to face renewable energy curtailment in all 2030-31 scenarios even in the absence of transmission constraints, Mercom reported.

The outlet noted that the National Committee on Transmission convened by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) discussed the implications of coal-based generating stations operating at the technical minimum of 55% instead of 40%.

Earlier, a CEA committee had recommended operating thermal power plants at a minimum technical load of 40% since the grid was increasingly experiencing a pronounced “duck curve,” with surplus renewables during solar hours and steep evening ramp requirements, the report said. The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission had also suggested that thermal plants adopt two-shift operations to support grid stability.

The clean energy consulting firm said that according  to load-generation balance studies of the Central Transmission Utility of India (CTUIL) as part of the rolling transmission plan for 2030-31, the grid could see surplus generation of 48 GW to 95 GW across seasonal and dispatch scenarios even if coal-based power stations operate at a technical minimum of 40%. The surplus could rise to 68GW and 115GW if the technical minimum requirement of coal plants is kept at 55% instead of 40%, the outlet said. 

Wasting China's Solar Panel Surplus is Madness

It is “madness” for the world to be facing energy shortages in the wake of the effective closure of the strait of Hormuz, when solar-panel factories are not being used to their full potential, wrote Financial Times. “Consumers are calling out for alternatives to unreliable fossil fuels. And yet we are in a world of surplus solar panels. Let that sink in,” the outlet said, adding that “Chinese companies have the capacity to produce a vast 1,000 gigawatts of panels per annum…And yet factories are idling.” The author runs through the “well-rehearsed arguments for discounting this dizzying state of affairs”, before concluding: “The clean electrotech revolution will triumph. Dirt-cheap solar panels and batteries are its shock troops. But mark 2026 as the moment when the world found itself with ‘more than enough’ solar panels and we shrugged.”

China’s Solar Majors Charge Into Batteries as Panel Sales Falter

China’s major solar-panel manufacturers are betting on “higher-margin battery exports to boost revenue” as sales growth in the solar sector slows amid “weaker domestic installations, slowing exports and record-low prices”, reported Reuters. The sector’s effort to pivot to new areas of growth, which includes space solar projects, follows a number of measures “over the last few years in an attempt to reduce output and set a price floor”

Bloomberg quoted Zhu Gongshan, chairman of GCL Technology, saying that the “traditional concept of a standalone solar manufacturer will gradually fade as companies seek to capture growing demand for batteries, particularly from power-hungry data centres”

International Energy Net reported that the energy storage project supporting China’s largest single-site solar power base has begun operation, which will facilitate the annual consumption of more than 450 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of solar-generated electricity, reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 375,000 tonnes per year and enhance the region’s capacity to absorb renewable energy.