A preliminary evaluation of financial incentives for renewable energy technologies in India

The Government of India has been providing various financial incentives including capital subsidy, interest subsidy and depreciation related income tax benefits with the objective of promoting development and dissemination of renewable energy technologies in the country. These financial incentives have, however, changed from time to time in their type, magnitude, scope and even geographical coverage. In some cases, the state governments have also been providing additional incentives. It is therefore, necessary to undertake a detailed evaluation and comparison of different financial incentives provided for dissemination of renewable energy technologies in India (provided in the past as well as the existing incentives) to facilitate a comprehensive grasp of these measures for future planning. An attempt in this direction has been made in this paper. Simple mathematical expressions have been derived to facilitate comparison among some of the commonly provided financial incentives. Results of some exemplifying calculations for three solar energy systems have been presented and briefly discussed. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.