* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
From electrocution risks to lost land and scarce employment, many local communities are failing to benefit from India's clean power boom
India’s solar energy dream is pitched as a promise that addresses the twin objectives of climate action and economic recovery. For this reason, the green energy transition is portrayed as one of the crucial enablers of “building back better” from the COVID-19 pandemic, which implies transforming the economy into a sustainable, inclusive and resilient one.
This year’s Union Budget, primed as a booster for India’s economic future, has accorded significant importance to the energy transition and climate change by providing incentives to shift away from conventional fossil fuels towards renewable energy sources.
The budget pegged India’s solar energy goal at 280 GW of installed capacity by the year 2030. To complement this, an additional outlay of Rs 19,500 crores ($2.6 billion) has been made towards a production-linked incentive scheme for solar component manufacturing.
Solar power installations are expected to bring economic benefits through cheaper power, as well as ecological benefits by reducing climate-heating emissions and social benefits through employment opportunities and local economic development.
But there are systemic challenges that hinder realization of these objectives in India.
Firstly, the “green label” accorded to solar installations should be looked at beyond just their life-cycle emissions to their footprint on local ecosystems. Solar installations in Rajasthan, for example, have been criticised for their transmission lines electrocuting the Great Indian Bustard, which is also the state bird of Rajasthan. In several places, solar parks are also reported to be adversely impacting local water availability from public resources.
Threats of electrocution have also increased because of the low height of transmission lines in places where many locals use camels for transportation. Children in remote villages have also reportedly been electrocuted as power lines were constructed too close to their houses and no efforts were made to spread awareness of the danger. The metrics to measure the “greenness” of such projects should go beyond greenhouse gas emissions to the quality and dignity of life of affected communities.
DISPLACED COMMUNITIES
Secondly, a major governance issue that affects local communities particularly in the case of large-scale solar parks, is land acquisition, rehabilitation, and resettlement. Commonly reported challenges include discrepancies in compensation calculation and its disbursement, and lack of efforts by the state to ensure that livelihood opportunities are made available to displaced communities that match their skill sets, cultural ethos, and job perceptions. For instance, it is futile to expect a tribal household that depends on land resources to relocate to an industrial area, or similarly, a family with experience of only agriculture or animal husbandry to vacate their land and shift to an entirely new type of work.
There are socio-cultural and political challenges to land acquisition. Examples from Rajasthan provide ample evidence as to how local sacred groves (called orans) have been acquired by the state for solar and wind projects despite these lands being the sole source of livelihood for local farmers and people engaged in animal husbandry. Locals claim this as a case of misallocation and cheating by the state that did not properly measure, demarcate and register orans as farmland after independence.
READ MORE: India's solar energy boom fuels local struggle for green justice
POOR JOBS
Thirdly, the potential employment benefits linked to green projects like solar parks are often promises that remain on paper or are over-estimated. Many of the jobs in a typical solar plant installation are concentrated in manufacturing, engineering, and construction. Manufacturing jobs are largely created in exporting countries from where much of the raw material and components of solar plants are imported. Engineering and technical jobs are skilled and highly skilled work taken by graduates and engineers from all parts of the country. Locals are left with manual labor during construction work and menial jobs of security guards or helpers during the operations phase. The quality and stability of such jobs are highly questionable.
In addition, the process often appears to be top-down, meaning power dynamics between authorities and communities result in conflicts and exclusion of the latter from decision-making.
Recognizing these structural challenges requires political will and openness from policymakers to hear realities about such “development” projects - and then to address them. This cannot be done through the same coercive, top-down, and exclusionary governance that created the problems in the first place.
There is a need for the Indian state and companies to engage in meaningful and active dialogue with communities. Keeping them engaged, respecting their concerns and involving them in decision-making is the only way forward to develop India’s solar industry in a constructive and socially peaceful way.
