Solar PV policy framework of Indian States: Overview, pitfalls, challenges, and improvements

India is blessed with tremendous potential for PV energy production, however, tapping it is possible with meticulous planning and defining a policy framework. In the last five years, the solar industries in the country have started blooming rapidly with the implementation of solar policy by sixteen states. Revision of the state policies is needed as the country aims to achieve 100 GWp of solar capacity by the year 2022. Improvising the state policy depends mostly on factors such as estimated PV energy potential of the region, availability of useful wasteland, and implementation cost. The study reviews and discusses the pitfalls of current solar policy framework of sixteen states identify the challenges of the sector for achieving the targets. A case study of Odisha is elaborated on how to apply the new methods to incorporate abovementioned factors and revise state policy for betterment.