Why in news?

As India expands clean energy capacity, land for solar projects is becoming scarce and costly. This has pushed interest towards innovative solutions that generate power without consuming more land.

The recently approved PM Surya Sarovar Yojana (PM-SSY) targets 5,000 MW of floating solar capacity on reservoirs and inland water bodies. But India's water infrastructure holds another under-explored resource: its vast canal network, among the largest in the world.

What’s in Today’s Article?

• About Canal-Top Photovoltaics (CTPV)
• Why CTPV Makes Sense?
• India's Track Record So Far
• Policy Support: Past and Present
• The Scale of the Opportunity
• Why Deployment Has Stayed Limited?
• The Way Forward

About Canal-Top Photovoltaics (CTPV)

• In Canal-Top Photovoltaics (CTPV), solar panels are mounted on specialised elevated structures built over canal stretches.
• This differs from floating solar, where panels sit on platforms floating directly on water.
• Structures may span the canal or be installed along the canal banks, depending on width, design and orientation.
• In every configuration, the design must allow unobstructed water flow underneath.

Why CTPV Makes Sense?

• Land Saved - Like floating solar, CTPV's biggest advantage is that it needs virtually no additional land. In Punjab, installing 20 MW of CTPV capacity is estimated to have saved nearly 100 acres of land.
• Water Saved - Panels covering canal stretches reduce evaporation losses — valuable in India's water-stressed regions.
• Better Panel Performance - The cooling effect of water beneath the panels can improve efficiency in hot weather.
• A Working Example - A 1-MW CTPV system over the Narmada Canal in Mehsana, Gujarat, commissioned in 2012, reportedly saves close to 9 million litres of water annually while generating 1.6 million units of electricity each year.

India's Track Record So Far

• CTPV remains a niche application, but India was an early mover.
  • 2012: First CTPV installation at Mehsana, Gujarat.
  • 2014–2017: Two 10-MW systems commissioned in Vadodara, Gujarat.
  • 2017–2018: 20 MW commissioned across Punjab.
  • September 2025: The Punjab Energy Development Agency invited expressions of interest for 40-MW CTPV projects across Punjab's canal network, which spans over 10,000 km.
  • Haryana has begun exploring CTPV over six of its irrigation canals.

Policy Support: Past and Present

• CTPV first received formal backing in 2014, when the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) launched a pilot-cum-demonstration scheme for grid-connected CTPV and canal-bank projects.
• Target: 50 MW each for CTPV and canal-bank projects.
• Financial assistance: Rs 3 crore per MW (CTPV) and Rs 1.5 crore per MW (canal-bank), or 30% of project cost, whichever was lower.

The Scale of the Opportunity

• A 2024 assessment, co-authored by the Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP), estimated India's combined CTPV and canal-bank potential at around 131 GW.
  • This covers canals up to 30 metres wide, plus vertical bifacial installations for canals wider than 30 metres.
  • The assessment factored in solar irradiation, canal characteristics, distance from substations, and protected areas.
• The five states with highest potential: Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab.

Why Deployment Has Stayed Limited?

• Despite early progress, CTPV has not scaled meaningfully in over a decade.
• High system cost is the primary bottleneck. Elevated structures spanning canals cost more than simple ground-mounted panels.
• Structures must be engineered to not disrupt canal operations and to withstand wind loads, requiring extra structural steel, foundations and maintenance access.
• Maintenance is harder — cleaning, repair and replacement work is more difficult on structures elevated above a working canal.
• The linear, winding nature of canals complicates layout, especially where canals change direction or substations are poorly located, raising the cost of electricity produced.

The Way Forward

• PM-SSY is expected to revitalise floating solar and signal growing policy interest in land-neutral solar solutions. This momentum could extend to CTPV as well, but scaling it requires deliberate steps:
  • Site selection based on land scarcity, nearby electricity demand, grid connectivity, and canal orientation.
  • Tailored financing — viability gap funding and low-cost debt — to attract developers and help early projects build experience, eventually reducing costs through scale.
  • A lesson from 2014: financial support alone is not enough. The earlier MNRE scheme did not convert pilots into large-scale deployment.
  • What's now needed is a renewed policy approach combining financial assistance, standardised specifications and guidelines, capacity building of state nodal agencies and irrigation departments, and streamlined approval processes.
• CTPV will not replace ground-mounted or rooftop solar. But even a fraction of its technical potential could meaningfully boost India's renewable capacity without adding pressure on land.

Conclusion

India does not lack sunlight or canals — it lacks the financing and standardisation to link the two at scale. CTPV shows that clean energy need not always compete with agriculture or habitation for land.

Turning canal water into a power asset, rather than just a resource in transit, is a quiet but meaningful opportunity waiting to be prioritised.