Solar could scale up substantially to be a significant energy source by 2025, with the market penetration of solar power expected to be 5.7 per cent (54 GW) by 2020 and 12.5 per cent (166 GW) by 2025.

India aims to reduce emission intensity of its GDP by 33 to 35 per cent by 2030 from 2005 levels, and solar power is likely to contribute 4 per cent towards this target, states KPMG in India's report, titled ‘The Rising Sun - Disruption on the horizon'.

The report talks about how the scale up and competitiveness of solar power could disrupt the traditional generators. The disruptive force is expected to start being felt from 2017 and may accelerate post 2020.

In some states which are promoting solar (and also wind power) aggressively, conventional coal generators could see their Plant Load Factors (PLFs) fall by as much as 10-15 per cent by 2020, as solar replaces coal-fired generation in the daytime hours. This effect may speed up post 2020 with the annual addition of large amounts of solar (estimated to exceed by 20 GW per year by 2022-23). 

The report was released by Piyush Goyal, Honourable Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, and New and Renewable Energy and Dharmendra Pradhan, Honourable Minister of State (IC) - Petroleum and Natural Gas at ENRich 2015, KPMG in India's annual energy conclave.

Other eminent dignitaries present during the report launch included Richard Rekhy, CEO, KPMG in India, Michiel Soeting, Global Chair for ENR, KPMG, Arvind Mahajan, Partner and Head of Infrastructure, Government & Energy, KPMG in India, Nitin Atroley, Partner and Head, Sales and Markets, KPMG in India and Manish Aggarwal, Partner and Head - Energy and Natural Resources, KPMG in India among others.

(Continued on the next page)