Here Comes The Sun: How solar energy could help warm Kashmir’s bitter winters

A view of downtown Srinagar, in Kashmir Valley (Reuters file photo)

Even though  the cost of power is steadily rising in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K), Shabir Ahmad Khan, from the Gogjibagh area of Srinagar, is laughing his way to the bank come snow or shine. Khan gets free electricity for about nine months a year, thanks to the solar panel he’s installed on his roof.

Khan is among the 2,877 early adopters in the union territory (UT) who have availed of the government’s Grid Connected Solar Rooftop scheme, which subsidises up to 65 percent  of the cost of setting up a rooftop solar plant.

“I have installed an 8 KW solar setup, and managed to generate free and clean energy. I have only incurred a one-time cost,” he said.

Iftikhar A Drabu, a civil engineer who has worked in the hydropower sector and has been closely following developments in the energy sector in India, including J&K, told Moneycontrol that the adjacent union territory of Ladakh also has immense potential for the development of solar power, though there is not much consumption there.

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“All the power generated in Ladakh will need to be transmitted to north India. This will require high-capacity transmission lines, which are already being developed by the government,’’ Drabu said, and added that he himself had installed 6 KW of solar power capacity.

“For 6 KW, the project cost in 2020 was Rs 3,24,000. But I paid only Rs 1,08,000, as the rest was covered by the government. The solar power system works very well, and from mid-March till mid-November, I do not pay any electricity bill because during these eight months my solar plant generates more power than I can consume. The additional energy is stored in a battery, from which it is withdrawn during winter, when my usage increases substantially and there’s little or no generation from my rooftop plant. Therefore, I pay my electricity bill only for two to three months,” Drabu added.

According to 58-year-old Khan, he had to first pay the full amount, and then claim the subsidy. This, he says, makes it unaffordable for many people, and is the reason for the poor penetration of solar power here.

Drabu, however, said that solar power has helped  reduce his electricity bills drastically. He said that earlier he used to spend Rs 50,000 yearly on electricity provided by the Kashmir Power Distribution Company Limited (KPDCL). That has now reduced to just Rs 10,000.

Despite the Himalayan region having abundant natural energy sources, including solar, wind, and water, it continues to grapple with underutilisation of clean energy, said Nadeem Qadri, an environmental activist from Kashmir.

According to a government official who spoke on condition of anonymity, the erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state (including the union territory of Ladakh) has the second-highest  potential for harnessing solar energy in India,  but continues to purchase electricity from other states to meet its energy requirements.

The Energy Statistics India Report, 2022, reveals that the erstwhile J&K state has the potential to generate 1.1 lakh MW of solar energy. However, the official said that J&K has just 27.25 MWs of installed solar power capacity.

Similarly, despite having the potential to generate over 20,000 MW of hydroelectricity a year, J&K produces only about 3,500 MW per annum, utilising just about 17 percent of its potential.

The J&K government has set a December 2025 deadline to install solar power plants on all government buildings, to alleviate its increasing power burden.

The government is considering harnessing 500 MW of solar energy by 2030 under a clean energy mission. Similarly, in a bid to lower the carbon footprint, it is also planning to generate 1,500 MW of solar energy by 2047.

A senior official of the Jammu & Kashmir Energy Development Authority (JAKEDA), which  was set up in 1989, said that the erstwhile state of J&K (now bifurcated into two union territories, J&K and Ladakh) ranked second after Rajasthan in terms of the potential to produce solar energy in India.

“Not just J&K, Ladakh also has huge potential in solar energy. Both UTs together can generate abundant solar power to meet India’s energy requirements,” the official told Moneycontrol on condition of anonymity.

An engineer working with JAKEDA, now the nodal agency for the development of renewable energy projects in the UT, told Moneycontrol that Ladakh itself can generate 95 percent of the solar power potential, while J&K can produce the remaining 5 percent.

“Ladakh sprawls over 60,000 square kilometres in the Himalayas, and has the highest intensity of solar radiation in India. Ladakh’s capital Leh sees more than 320 sunny days a year, and is poised to be India’s solar energy leader. The people in the cold desert have also embraced clean energy to illuminate their homes,” he said.

He added that the vast land bank available in Ladakh in the form of barren mountains makes the region highly feasible for harnessing solar energy. “The mountains of Ladakh are located at a high altitude, with the highest insolation, which means the intensity of solar radiation is huge. Unlike in J&K, which has large forest cover,”  he added.

Over the past decade, the central government has been focusing on establishing infrastructure to utilise renewable energy sources in J&K and Ladakh. During last year’s budget speech, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the inter-state transmission system for the evacuation and grid integration of 13 GW of renewable energy from Ladakh to Kaithal in Haryana, will be built with an investment of Rs 20,700 crore.

Last June, the centre sanctioned a whopping Rs 27,000 crore to develop solar power projects in J&K and Ladakh. The work on the  green hydrogen project in Ladakh, that uses solar energy, is underway, and the centre hopes to complete it before 2026.

Energy experts believe that clean energy can resolve the prolonged power crisis in the region, which relies heavily on procuring electricity from power distribution companies. In 2022, the government had to take a loan of Rs 31,000 crore to pay the dues of these companies.

The JAKEDA engineer also said that if the region’s solar power potential is harnessed, not only can the power outages plaguing Kashmir be addressed, the energy can be even exported to other states, where 70 percent of power is generated using non-renewable coal energy.

According to the Chief Engineer of the J&K Power Development Department, Sandeep Seth, peak power demand in Kashmir valley is about 1,900 MW, while the supply is only about 1,400 MW.