Beehives or elephants?: how should India drive its solar transformation?
India's solar potential is virtually limitless. As solar is rapidly becoming a mainstream energy option, India needs to think about the best way to deploy it. This report examines the ideal solar road map for India through comparative analysis of four distinct scenarios of solar power generation - residential rooftops (solar bees), large rooftops (solar pigeons), utility scale projects (solar horses) and ultra-mega projects (solar elephants). The report highlights that solar power is unique because it can be deployed in a variety of forms ranging from distributed generation (residential & large rooftops) to centralized generation (utility scale & ultra-mega scale projects). Each scenario is analysed in terms of not only levelized cost of energy (LCOE) but also landed cost of power (LCOP) which measures the cost to a consumer at the point of consumption, rather than at the point of generation.