40W Solar Bicycles more effective  than
4 kW Solar Rooftops to curb CO2 emissions

With the addition of 24.5 GW of new solar power capacity in 2024, India's total installed renewable energy (RE) capacity reached 209.44 GW as of December 2024. Solar energy accounts for approximately 47 percent of the total RE segment, making it the most significant contributor among renewable sources. 

India added around 18.5 GW of new solar capacity, in 2024, an increase of 280 per cent  over 2023, in the utility-scale solar segment. The surge in the solar power sector is mainly attributed to the falling module prices and subsequent growth in the commercial and industrial sector installations. 
India added around 4.59 GW of new solar capacity, in 2024, an increase of 53 per cent, in the rooftop solar sector, thanks to the launch of the 'PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana'.  Also in the off-grid or distributed segment, solar capacity of 1.48 GW was added in 2024, and increase of 197 per cent. 

The above table shows that India's   CO2 emissions  has increased by 197% in 2023 in comparison to the year 2000.  India is also having the largest increase in  CO2 emissions in relative terms (+6.1%) in 2023 when compared to 2022.  

So why isn't the total installed renewable energy (RE) capacity (of 209.44 GW as of December 2024) helping in reducing the  CO2 emissions?  The answer is simple. The renewable energy is used to fuel additional load from new growth in infrastructure in industrial, commercial, agricultural and residential sectors. The renewables are not at all effective in reducing the fossil fuel consumption of the installations that existed in the year 2000. India is arguing that its emissions should be analysed in terms of amount of CO2 per capita. The growth of India's population is also used as a justification for the increase in  India's CO2 emissions.  Whatever the reason for the increase in India's CO2 emissions, it cannot be a justification for failure to achieve its goal of net zero emissions  in order to  limit global warming to 1.5 ℃.   

Our analysis of the solar installations show that the government subsidies for solar are causing more damage than good to the environment. The consumers who are opting for solar rooftop installations by availing the solar subsidy are doing so only to offset their more expensive fossil fuel based units imported against the cheaper solar units earlier exported, under the Net-metering tariff . In this manner, the consumer is able to charge their Electric Vehicles at night with fossil fuel based energy from the utility, practically free of cost.  The EVs are also available to the consumer at a lower price thanks to the EV subsidy offered by the government. All put together, the consumer is able to significantly reduce his own utility bills and enjoy the luxury of driving an EV, at the cost of the environment. An audit of the consumer's fossil fuel units imported before and after the solar roof top installation would show that the imported units have actually increased post installation. Unfortunately, this audit is never carried out and all that is visible to the happy consumer is the reduction in his electricity bills. 

One may argue that the solar units exported by a customer can be used to feed a fossil fuel driven load, hence it would result in reduction in CO2 emissions. This is also not true since maximum solar units are generated and exported usually at noon.  The Indian utilities wonder what to do with the excess solar generation that they are unable to store and the best option open to the utilities is to offer them practically free of cost to the agricultural sector where much of the energy goes unmetered and gets consumed on a HorsePower (HP) based tariff. Farmers are often seen to keep their pumps in the 'always ON state' on the agricultural feeders; hence, when they are energised by the utilities with solar energy,  this results in overdrawal of water and fall in level of the water table.  Fall in water level means that more powerful pumps need to be deployed that consume more energy. Thus it results in more damage in terms of CO2 emissions.

 It should be noted that manufacturing solar cells also result in CO2 emissions. Hence, if these  CO2 emissions cannot be recovered through the generation of electricity  from these very solar cells, then  a typical 4 kW solar rooftop installation over a residential consumer's premises that use thousands of these solar cells thus can result in more damage in terms of CO2 emissions, than good.

On the other hand, the solar bicycles that are fitted with 40 W solar panel substitutes an EV (or an ICE engine).  The 40W solar panel represents just 1/100 of the 4 kW solar panels that are found over a typical rooftop installation. When the EV or the car with an ICE is parked at home, the solar bicycle rider would be saving in terms of  CO2 emissions significantly.   Every kilometer run by a solar bicycle represents a direct saving of  0.133 kg or 0.08 kg of CO2eq., assuming that the vehicle that it substitutes is an SUV with an ICE engine of 1600 cc or an electric motor of 60 kWh respectively.