PHOTON International The Photovoltaic Magazine

Indian government pushing 500 solar shops; PVMTI Energy Stores reduce projection

The government of India is targeting the setup of 500 new solar shops around the country by March 2007.

	© PVMTI
New number: A Shri Shakti Energy Store is only one of eight. The original goal of 300 stores has been reduced to 125.

The goal is part of the country's 10th Five Year Plan, formally approved at the end of September, which also foresees an additional 200 MW of PV production in India (see PI 10/2002, p. 24). E.V.R. Sastry, solar energy advisor at the Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources (MNES), says 90 percent of the shops will be set up by private entrepreneurs and NGOs. Each can receive a onetime grant equal to about 20 to 25 percent of the cost of starting a solar business; Sastry did not provide a monetary value. He says MNES hopes to sanction 50 shops by March, the end of the current fiscal year; it will take 6 to 12 months to put them into operation once approved. The remaining shops will be set up directly by the government.

Sastry does not consider the MNES plan to be competing with a Photovoltaic Market Transformation Initiative (PVMTI) project to help the Shri Shakti group open 300 Energy Stores in India (see PI 1/2000, p. 17). »They are a flop,« he says. »There are nowhere near 300. Only a handful have been set up.« According to Satya Kumar, managing director of Shri Shakti Alternatives Energy Ltd. (SSAEL), eight shops are currently in operation, concentrating on sales of LP gas and PV consumer electronics products. Kumar says SSAEL has not added solar home system products to its inventory yet, and is lowering the goal to 125 stores. »But we will meet our PV sales under the [PVMTI] program several years in advance,« he adds. Kumar declined to give details on what the original targets were and when they would be met. PVMTI committed $2.2 million to SSAEL in 1999, including $200,000 for a 26 percent International Finance Corporation equity stake.