This document discusses solar power as a remunerative crop (SPaRC) in India and two approaches to incentivizing solar generation. It argues that farmers have a comparative advantage in solar generation due to land ownership and proposes that solar irrigation pumps (SIPs) be the core of India's national solar mission. Under an IWMI proposal, SIPs would be grid-connected and farmers paid a subsidy plus guaranteed price for excess power sold to the grid. This could generate solar jobs, reduce carbon emissions, and accelerate agricultural growth while conserving water. However, key barriers to SPaRC uptake include unfamiliarity, coordination costs for solar companies, and opposition from power distribution companies.

1. ICIMOD-WLE
Springs and Solar Workshop , 19-21 March 2015
IWMI-Tata Program’s SPaRC Initiative
Solar Power as a Remunerative Crop (SPaRC):
Exploring Alternative Architectures for India’s Future Solar Economy
Tushaar Shah
Senior Fellow, IWMI and
Leader, IWMI-Tata Water Policy Program

2. Why Promote
Solar
Irrigation
Pumps
Green
energy
Alternative
to grid
power
Equitable
water
markets
Cutting
farm
power
subsidy
SPaRC:
Direct attack on agrarian
poverty
Reduce
drudgery

3. Highlights
• Irrigation is but a small part of the unfolding solar game
• Farmers have comparative advantage in solar generation
• Solar can reconfigure small-holder agricultural economy
• Solarised farming has collateral social and eco-system benefits
• India’s commitment for 100 GW solar can be a game changer
• Pilots should illustrate desired future for a solar economy

4. Two Critical Questions
1. Who will install, own and operate 100
GW of solar capacity that India creates
over coming 7 years?
2. What is the best way of incentivizing
private investment in solar generation?

5. Who will install, own and operate 100 GW of
solar capacity over the coming 7 years?
Utility
scale
Rooftop
PV
Solar
Pumps
Jawaharlal Nehru National
Solar Mission
80 20 0
Bridge-to-India (Tata Solar;
German Consultancy)
85 15 0
Council for Energy,
Environment and Water
(CEEW)
80 45 20
IWMI-Tata Program 0 0 100

6. Why Farmers? #1 They have
natural advantage
• One input solar plants need is land; farmers own half of
India’s land; no land acquisition issue
• Farmers are in the ‘solar business’ for millennia,
capturing 3% of sunlight for conversion to energy from
food; they can move from natural to artificial
photosynthesis that captures 10% of sunlight to produce
energy.
• Solar panels can double up as a green house; so no
land-footprint of PV arrays

7. Why Farmers? #2 SIP’s can transform a
perverse E-I nexus into a benign one.
Farmers use 1/3rd of India’s grid power. Pumping energy
demand has a perfect fit with solar generation. why wheel it
from remote generating sites to millions of farmers if farmers can
grow their own power?
Farmers in western India deplete aquifers due to perverse
subsidies. Taking tubewells off the grid and paying farmers
for solar power is the best way of incentivizing conservation
of power and groundwater.
Farmers in eastern India have abundant groundwater but
little energy. Solar can kickstart its belated green revolution.

8. Why Farmers? #3 Solar energy is the most
profitable cash crop for India’s farmers. Counter
Keynesian prophesy
A 10 kWp solar plant uses 60 m2 of land and generates
some 13000 kWh/year valued at Rs 65,000 or Rs 1
crore/ha.
crop Land used
(million ha)
GVOO
(Billion US $)
Net Value
Added (Billion
US $)
CO2 balance
(tCO2)
Rice 55 14.2 8.0 61 million
Milk 10 32 20 66 million
100 GW SPaRC capacity 0.2 13 9 ~0
‘Growing’ solar power needs no seeds, fertilisers, pesticides
and very little water and labour.

9. What is the best way to incentivize
solar generation
• Two approaches:
• Capital cost subsidy: 90%+ for household solar systems
and for solar pumps;
• Generation-based incentive through guaranteed power
purchase at FiT.
• Each produces a different behavioural pattern. SPaRC
needs a blend of both.

10. Current SIP Promotion Policies
SIP’s are insignificant in National Solar Mission
SIP’s as Green Energy and Subsidy Reduction solution
Annual spend ~ US $ 0.1 b
Pro-arata 90%+ capital cost subsidy
Conditions: small kWp; farm ponds; micro-irrigation
SIPs as a supplement to grid power connection
Dispersed SIP distribution to maximize demo effect

11. IWMI Proposal: SPaRC Promotion Policy
SIP’s are the core of the National Solar Mission
SIP’s as Livelihoods-energy-water solution
Annual total spend ~ US $ 4-6 b
SIPs grid connected and net metered. Flat subsidy of ~ US
$ 500/kWp plus a power purchase guarantee at US c` 8-
9/kWh; farmers free to add non-subsidy panels
Only Condition: farmer must surrender grid power
connection
SIP as an alternative to grid power connection
Village-level Solar Pump Irrigators’ Cooperative

13. Utility Scale: 100 GW
Gains
Costs
EconomicEco-system
Capital cost to corporates
US $140-160 b
Solar Jobs
Revenue for corporates
from sale of
Solar Power
Social cost of land acquisition for
utility-scale projects
Carbon credit for greener
energy mix

14. Deepening of loss of eco-system
resilience of aquifer systems in
western corridor due to sustained
groundwater depletion
Improved finances of electricity industry
(reduced power subsidies)
Capital investment mostly by govt.
(economies of scale and scope)
gains
costs
economicEco-system
Solar jobs
(distributed generation)
130 billion units of free day-time,
uninterrupted solar power to farmers
Reduced C-footprint from replacingn
thermal energy used in GW pumping
Current SIP Promotion Strategy:
Upto 12 million 8.5 kWp Solar Irrigation Pumps:
(total 100 GW)
100
GW by
2020
Technical losses saved
Accelerated agrarian growth in GBM
basin
Carbon credit for greener energy mix

15. Incentive to waste power
and water gives way to
incentive to conserve.
Enhanced farmer net income from sale
of solar power to the grid
(Rs 675 billion/year)
Loss of eco-system resilience of aquifer
systems in western corridor due to
sustained groundwater depletion
Improved finances of electricity industry
(reduced power subsidies)
Capital investment by govt
gains
costs
economicecology
Solar jobs
(distributed generation)
130-150 billion kWh of solar power to
irrigate or to sell at Rs 5-7/kWh
Thermal energy saved in GW pumping
100
GW by
2020
Technical losses saved
CER credit from greener energy mix
IWMI-WLE SPaRC Proposal:
Upto 12 million 8.5 kWp
SIPs (total 120 GW)
Karnataka’s Surya Raitha Scheme
Improved
working
of canal
irrigation
systems
Capital investment by farmers
Accelerated agrarian growth in GBM
basin

16. Incentivize farmers to
grow SPaRC…
Jyoti-
gram?
Livelihoods++
Livelihoods -- --
ESSR ++ESSR -- --
Incremental impacts of policy interventions
Livelihoods lose;
ESSR lose
Livelihoods gain;
ESSR lose
Livelihoods lose;
ESSR gain
Livelihoods gain;
ESSR gain

17. Key Barriers to SPaRC Uptake
• Unfamiliarity
• Coordination costs for solar
PV companies
• Intricacies of grid-tying and
net-metering;
• Of power evacuation from
dispersed small generators;
• Opposition from DISCOMs;
• Transaction costs of power
purchase from millions of
small distributed generators;
IWMI-WLE-CCAFs pilot in
Thamna village near Anand

18. Thank You for this
opportunity