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The gigantic consumption and exploration of alternate sources of energy have directed the world economies towards the energy transition and adoption with the help of many benchmark policies. The Government of India has made extensive efforts by implementing wide range of energy market reforms and providing electricity through clean energy sources specifically via Solar. Nevertheless, there are thousands of people living without immediate access to electricity around the world, causing delays in the espousal of renewable energy resources. One of the confounding cases can be observed in the tenuous and precarious region of India situated within the Middle and Trans Himalayas known as Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. This region lags far behind than rest of the States and Union Territory (U.T.) in India in the successful adoption of Solar Photovoltaic Systems (SPV) not in terms of large-scale induction but even at the small scale. There is lack of awareness regarding environmental protection, green goods and services tend to build a lower sensitivity towards adoption, diffusion, epistemology and morality.
The research primarily examines the relationship between energy access and energy transition with the help of extensive historical analysis followed by gauging the perception of various stakeholders regarding the same. And, finally using auction mechanism to estimate the preferences of the individual households in the region by eliciting their respective willingness to pay for grid-connected solar rooftop systems. The combination of both qualitative research and quantitative research helped in answering the three important objectives of the research explained in the further chapters. In this thesis, I have demonstrated a way to incorporate Becker DeGroote Model for expensive technologies in evaluating the preferences of the consumers in solar rooftop adoption. Additionally, the thesis discusses some of the behavioral aspects that are largely ignored in the evaluation and the policy making. This approach allows one to represent the full diversity of consumers and the residential houses they own and the decision making behavior affecting solar PV adoption Hence, the study’s findings reflect on various intricacies and temporality that result in the impediment, and complexities within the territory that leads to the slow growth of energy transition and adoption and its impact on the people who are at the heart of susceptibilities. The research further expounds the new way of forming energy policies with the help of reasonable comparison between the traditional and new approaches useful for policymakers, academia and the Government. It also reveals that the incentives have a huge role to play in the dissemination of the technology whereas education has least amount of effect on the adoption of such technologies.
The research further concludes that electricity supply in these regions should bring more than just light to initiate improvement in the quality of life of dwellers. However, the specific policy does not stipulate how the deployment of renewable energy sources and access will impact local people and communities, especially vulnerable regions. The thesis fills this gap by focusing and empirically investigating the ground level scenario on solar PV condition. As a result of which, elucidating evidences of the immediate socio-economic and environmental conditions of such fragile areas [as the state level projects for a long time focused on adoption of renewable technologies (solar)].
Therefore, in the process of rapid development of solar PV adoption in developing countries, most importantly in India and its remote areas, this research makes significant contribution towards acknowledging the uniqueness of localities and given thorough considerations to the local context in renewable energy deployment. It also set the precedence for future developments in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh to cogitate and conduct prior grass root-level research of the project/policy relating to the specific locality in order to maximize the impact thereof. Most importantly, it supplements the renewable energy policy strategy of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy of India, by specifying how renewable energy deployment can impact local people in India.
Keywords: solar rooftop, grid-connected systems, stakeholder analysis, renewable energy, energy transition, energy access, SDG, auctions, BDM, willingness to pay, Jammu and Kashmir, India.
