Solar integration in the UK and India: technical barriers and future directions

The technology of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems has seen remarkable boom the past decade and remains central in the decarbonization and post-COVID19 recovery plan of many countries worldwide. However, global experience shows that PV installations start to level off in networks with certain solar integration levels. Among the various reasons, such as financing, regulations, markets etc., this report focuses and takes a deep look on technical challenges that act as barriers against further solar integration and develops a roadmap with technology innovations and transformations that will allow a high-solar future. The UK and India are the focal points of this investigation, examining closely how the challenges and future directions relate or differ between the two countries. This report arises out of the UK-India Joint Virtual Clean Energy Centre (JVCEC), which is a research consortium that involves ten UK universities and thirteen Indian institutes within three virtual centres namely, the Joint UK-India Clean Energy Centre (JUICE), the India-UK Centre for Education and Research in Clean Energy (IUCERCE) and the UK India Clean Energy Research Institute (UKICERI).