SWOT Analysis for Solar PV-Technology

Dr. Chandani Sharma and Dr. Anamika Jain

Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Graphic Era University, Dehradun 248002 Uttrakhand, India
chandani19nov@gmail.com

Abstract — Solar PV Technology is a universal source used
for generation and distribution in power utility applications.
With over 300 days making available 3,000 hours of sunshine
and power equivalent to 5,000 trillion kWh, it becomes
necessary to analyze the effects of technology. The paper
discusses present status and future needs for technovations
and management skills in the areas of solar power extraction
and value added techniques with applications. The paper also
focuses on SWOT i.e. strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and
threats for economic growth hindered by shortage of use of
solar technology. The upcoming marketing areas benefitted
by increased use of technology are also mapped and discussed.
Keywords: PV Technology, SWOT, Solar Power Extraction
Photovoltaic’s (PV) working on photoelectric conversion
and (3) Solar Hydro (SH) using perennial streams of water.
II. PRESENT STATUS AND CHALLENGES
In India, GDP high growth rate resulted in great demand
of energy, but the supply is unable to match the demand.
India being amongst sunny regions of the world receives
4 to 7 KWhr of solar radiation per square meter per day
with 250 -300 sunny days in a year. Nevertheless, solar
energy constituted just a miniscule part in India’s installed
power generation capacity of 2180 MW in 2016 as shown
in Fig. 1.

I. INTRODUCTION
SOLAR energy, the clean, abundant and renewable energy
source can be utilized by panels for generation of electricity
in form of Photovoltaic technology. Once a solar panel is
installed, solar energy can be produced free-of-charge and
does not produce any pollution. Solar cells make absolutely
no noise at all. On the other hand, the giant machines
utilized for pumping oil are extremely noisy and therefore
very impractical. Moreover, very little maintenance is
needed to keep solar cells running. There are no moving
parts in a solar cell which makes it impossible to really
damage them. In the long term, there can be a high return
on investment due to the amount of free energy a solar
panel can produce. Figure 1. Installed Renewable Energy Capacity, 2016.

Thus Solar energy though abundant in India is not being

PV systems provide secure investments being environment
utilized significantly. The National Solar Mission is major
friendly and emission free. Application areas of PV are
initiative of the government of India and state governments
not limited to agriculture and industry alone but personal
to promote ecologically sustainable growth using solar
and planetary sustainability too. Though there are number
route addressing India’s energy challenges. The major
of RET’s like Solar, Wind, Ocean, Geothermal, Biomass
initiatives of JNNSM include promotion of solar energy
and waste energy, Solar being most abundant has vast
technologies. The Mission aims to achieve grid tariff parity
energy potential. Solar appears to be the largest contributor
by 2022 through large scale utilization, rapid diffusion
among RET’s and investment in this sector is consistently
and deployment at a scale which leads to cost reduction in
increasing by 20-25% per annum.
R&D, pilot projects and technology demonstration, local
manufacturing and support infrastructure.
The solar technology features (i) Increasing efficiency of
solar cells (ii) Manufacturing technical improvements and
The roadmap planned by JNNSM to make photovoltaics as
(iii) Economies of scale. As such, solar finds three main
most important components of country’s energy mixture
applications in areas of (1) Solar Thermal (ST) related
is given in Table 1.
to concentrated collectors capturing sunlight, (2) Solar

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TABLE 1 – ROAD MAP FOR JNNSM

Figure 4. Solar Thermal Collectors.

Execution of this plan started using PV architectures

suitable for India. From about 1,114 MW installations 2013,
solar power installation rose to 2,319MW. Grid power
PV area provided 2,208.36 MW installations with OFF
grid structures around 200MW by January 2014. Various
application segments mentioned in above table are shown
through implemented designs in Figures 2-5.

Figure 5. Solar Lighting Systems.

All systems visualized above using PV panels are dependent

on type of solar cells used in manufacturing panel. In India,
emerging trends use thin film solar cells in PV panels
whose wafer thickness, cell efficiency and more absorbing
characteristics provide adaptive features in manufacturing
processes. Features of different category solar cells are given
in Table 2. It summarizes various types of solar cells used in
PV panel manufacturing and the challenges faced from them.

Table 2 – SOLAR CELLS TYPES AND CHALLENGES

Figure 2. Grid Solar Plant System.
S.N. CATEGORY TYPE CHALLENGE
1 Silicon Single Manufacturing,
crystalline Quality improvement
Polly crystalline
Amorphous Junction Multiplication
2 Compound III-V Band Gap control,
Thin Film (GaAsInP) Junction Multiplication
II-VI (CdTe/
CdS Cu2S/CdS )
3 Organic Pentacene Structure, development
Phthalocyanine of the device, multi-
Merocyanine junction.
4 Photochemical Dye sensitized Development of the
materials
5 Inorganic Quantum dots Synthesis and preparation
Figure 3. Rooftop Building Management System.

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Manufacturing of solar cell panel is not sufficient.
Terminology describing high efficiency of solar cell also
needs to be justified. Various terms that need to be managed
associated with solar cells are given in Table 3.
Table 3 – SOLAR CELLS HIGH EFFICIENCY MANAGED
PARAMETERS
S.N PARAMETER DESCRIPTION
1 Solar power The ratio of maximum power to the
extraction product of the input light irradiance
Efficiency and the solar cell surface area.
2 Fill Factor The ratio of maximum power
delivered by panel to standard power
conditions.
3 MPP (Maximum The operating point under which solar
Power Point) cell generates maximum power.
Thus upcoming demand for PV to be considered as most
appropriate exhaustless long-term source could be only
when above three factors are managed and properly
incorporated in solar cell panels. Research efforts are
developing in stimulating solar cells to produce increased
outputs at a lower cost. By identifying SWOT for PV
industry remarkable results can be discerned.
III. SWOT ANALYSIS FOR PV INDUSTRY IN INDIA
The major challenge in successful completion of
sustainable standard after surveying various Applications
based on PV panel can be determined by value concerns
through following four main industry segments. A SWOT
survey for Indian PV industry is given below:
Strengths: (i) Future of India is poised to be a major solar
power. (ii) Union Cabinet approves 25 solar projects for
India’s SunShot initiative.
(iii) JNNSM is accompanied with Ultra mega solar power
plants in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Ladakh
(Budget 2014-15)
(iv) Sunlight availability is sufficient and adaptable to shade
or no sun conditions.
(v) Technology is proven, scalable with low operation and
maintenance costs.
(vi) Availability of soft loans and government incentives for
growth and expansion.
Weaknesses: (i) Government incentives required to embark
more facilities and subsidies for solar ventures.
(ii) High capital and space costs for establishment of grid
utility plant.
(iii) Large business generally preferred due to capital intensive
nature.
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(iv) Distributed System designs cause base load difficulties.
(v) Research and development projects simulation designs for
shaded conditions are not up taken.
Opportunities: (i) Ambitious targets of Government for solar
projects.
(ii) PV Developers to get easy statutory and clearances on
projects.
(iii) Thrust on grid connected Defense establishments.
(iv) Priority sector implementation of rooftop houses in
remote areas with Government financing.
(v) Formation of Association of Renewable Energy Agencies
of States (AREAS) to continuously monitor watch of solar
programmers.
(vi) High innovative Green jobs in market by The Council
on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) research
institution through high-quality research by partnerships
with public and private institutions.
Threats: (i) High risks of obsolescence as novel technology.
(ii) Cash flow reduction in off season.
(iii) Searching professionally skilled persons for PV industries.
IV. SOLAR MARKETING AREAS
Electricity Generation: PV uses mini grid or mega grid
power plant to trap solar energy for conversion to electricity.
It is subdivided into Rooftop or Grid distribution. Rooftop
systems act as micro power plant to serve basic electric needs
of building. For improving performance they are connected
to Grid. Here, number of panels is used to determine wattage
outputs of PV structures. This mode of electricity generation
spread over a macro power grid can compete to provide
electrification of village rather than a single solar home
Electric Appliances: Appliances like batteries, regulators,
inverters and chargers for mobile phones, laptops, e-readers,
tubes, mini emergency lights and electronic items run using
solar panels. The most common use of solar street lights, solar
lanterns and CFL’s can be used in day-to-day life. Modern
lighting in buildings mainly focuses on Sox Lamps and Solar
powered projectors. Advertising sites, billboards can be easily
operated by these.
Water Systems: The uncertainty of timely water supply in
urban and non direct supply in rural areas creates concerns
regarding water heating, cooling and drying purposes. Solar
water heaters, water pumps and sprinkler sets serve best
alternate to such conditions.
Industrial Systems: Distilled water industry uses solar
panels on top for water distillation purposes. Catering in
canteens uses solar parabolic cookers for fooding, baking

applications. Small scale packing industries requiring small
supply use generator sets with motor driven by solar panels.
Pedaled bicycles, solar panel e-vehicles are increasingly
being developed. Green Schools and clean classrooms
are being prepared on solar generated pedaled devices.
Refrigeration in crop processing and vegetable industries
is also based on solar panel technology.
Communication Towers: Communication through land
by telecom towers, naval ships in running, satellites for
program relay all use solar panels aligned in such a frame
that energy captured by them is easily transported for use.
In India presently Bharti Infratel has largest number of solar
towers as compared to other simulation tools.
V. CONCLUSION
Clean and Green applications of solar energy with
challenges and opportunities have been discussed. To
revolutionize solar energy, reliance threats identified need
to be tracked appropriately. Global Pollution check and
conservation of environment can be done by use of solar
devices for balancing our lives.
REFERENCES
[1]. Access to Clean Energy “A glimpse of off grid projects in India”
Government of India Ministry of New & Renewable Energy
Report.
[2]. “Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission Phase II”
Government of India Ministry of New & Renewable Energy
Report.
[3]. B.C. Ramachandraa, Rishabh Jain, Gautham, A Krishnadas,
“Hotspots of solar potential in India”, Renewable and
Sustainable Energy Reviews, Volume 15, 2011, pp. 3178–3186.
[4]. Soteris A. Kalogirou, Solar Energy Engineering: Processes and
Systems.
[5]. India Solar PV Advisor, Guide by Energy Alternatives India
(EAI).
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[6]. Y. Tian and C.Y. Zhao, “A Review of Solar Collectors and
Thermal Energy Storage in Solar Thermal Applications”.
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[9]. Projects, Karnataka Power Corporation Limited, Government
of Karnataka, http://www.karnatakapower.com/projects.asp.
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PV Group White Paper.
Dr. Chandani Sharma is an Assistant Professor
in ECE Department at Graphic Era University,
Dehradun. She received PhD Degree from
GEU-Dehradun in ECE. She did M.Tech with
specialization in Image Processing from Shobhit
University, Meerut. She has 11 years of academic
experience. Her interest areas include Soft
Computing (Fuzzy systems), Process Control
and Renewable Energy. She has published thirty
one papers. She has been a meritorious student
throughout with an active involvement in many projects and workshops/
conference conduction.
Dr. Anamika Jain is a Professor in ECE
Department at Graphic Era University, Dehradun.
She received PhD Degree from IIT-Roorkee with
specialization in Soft Computing. Her interest
areas include Artificial Intelligence, Fuzzy
Control Systems and Process Control. She has
vast academic experience of twenty years. She
published over twenty four papers. She is currently
supervising three PhD students and more than ten
M.Tech and B.Tech students.
She has versatile knowledge and a contributor to Journal reviews.