RECOMMENDATIONS

Appropriate policy incentives might help in the large scale deployment of solar devices at household levels. There is a need to focus on energy efficient decentralized electricity generation technologies with micro grid and smart grid architecture, which would go long way in meeting the energy demand.  Solar energy based generation seems promising and environmental friendly option to meet the growing demands. India is blessed with the good solar potential and harvesting this potential would minimize the environmental implications associated with the fossil fuels. Solar Photovoltaic (SPV) technology has the potential to meet the domestic and irrigation demands in the decentralized way. In this regard, suggestions are:

• Electricity generation using SPV (solar photovoltaic) and CSP (concentrated solar power) technologies would bridge the demand supply gap as India receives abundant solar energy of more than 5 kWh/m2/day for about 300-330 days in a year. The adequate potential with mature technologies and apt policy incentives would help in meeting the electricity demand in a region.
• Roof top based SPV would help in meeting the household energy demand in rural as well as urban households. Rural household require about 70-100 kWh per month and to meet this requirement 5-6 m2 rooftop is adequate (at η=10%, and insolation of 5 kWh/m2/day) and the average rooftop in rural locations in Karnataka is about 110 m2 and about 155 m2 in urban localities.
• Adequate barren /waste land is available in Karnataka as the available waste land is about 7% of the total geographical area less than 1% area is sufficient to generate electricity required for irrigation and domestic sector through SPV installation.
• Decentralized generation of electricity through renewable energy resources (solar, wind, bioenergy) SPV would help in meeting the respective household’s electricity demand apart from the removal of T&D losses.  Generation based incentives (GBI) would herald the decentralized electricity generation, which would help in boosting the regional economy. Considering the current level of T & D losses in centralized system, inefficient and unreliable electricity supply, it is necessary to promote decentralized energy generation. Small capacity systems are efficient, economical and more importantly would meet the local electricity demand. 
• Promotion of high energy efficient appliances in households, mainly by replacing conventional heaters and coolers with high energy efficient ones. Government  need to improve the end use energy efficiency by providing improved cook stoves, Piped Natural Gas (PNG) usage instead of LPG, CFL/LED lamps, which will help in reducing the significant amount of energy and CO2 emission  from the household sector
• Using clean energy such as electricity for low-end energy inefficient activities such as water heating (for bathing) necessitates the energy auditing in household sector and also the extent of penetration of energy efficient devices including solar water heaters.
• Impetus to energy research through generous funding for the R and D activities to ensure further improvements in the grid, technologies, two way communication energy meters (to connect rooftop generation with existing grid),  efficient luminaries’ production, low cost wiring, switchgears, appliances, etc.
• Energy education (focusing mainly on renewable energy technologies, end-use energy efficiency improvements, energy conservation) at all levels. School curriculum shall include renewable energy (RE) concepts.
• Capacity building of youth through technical education for installation and servicing of SPV panels.
• Mandatory one week capacity building / training programmes to all bureaucrats and energy professionals at the initial stages of the career. This is essential as lack of awareness/knowledge among the bureaucrats is the major hurdle for successful dissemination of renewable energy technologies in India