REVIEW PAPER Solar Energy a Path to India’s Prosperity Yogender Pal Chandra 1 • Arashdeep Singh 2 • Vikas Kannojiya 3 • J. P. Kesari 4 Received: 9 March 2017 / Accepted: 29 March 2018 Ó The Institution of Engineers (India) 2018 Abstract Solar energy technology has grabbed a world- wide interest and attention these days. India also, having a huge solar influx and potential, is not falling back to feed its energy demand through non-conventional energy sour- ces such as concentrating solar power (CSP) and photo- voltaic (PV). This work will try to add some comprehensive insight on solar energy framework, policy, outlook and socio-economic challenges of India. This includes its prominent areas of working such as grid independent and ‘utility-scale’ power production using CSP or PV power plants, rural as well as urban electrifi- cation using PV, solar powered public transportation sys- tems, solar power in agrarian society—water pumping, irrigation, waste management and so on and so forth. Despite the fact that, a vast legion of furtherance and advancement has been done during the last decade of solar energy maturation and proliferation, improvements could be suggested so as to augment the solar energy usage in contrast to conventional energy sources in India. Keywords Renewable energy Á Solar energy Á JNNSM Introduction India has tremendous energy potential and despite finding difficulties, it is coping with the increase in demand to meet those needs through conventional as well as renewable energy sources of power generation. Electricity demand in India has been increasing at one of the fastest rates in the world due to population growth and economic develop- ment. As a matter of fact, according to census of India, only 55.5% of rural households had access to electricity in 2011. In another words, only 93.12 million households out of 167.8 million rural households were electrified in 2011. Accordingly, as per statistics, in few states the rural household electrification during 2011 was alarmingly low, namely, Bihar (10.4%), Assam (28.4%), Uttar Pradesh (23.8%), Odisha (35.6), Jharkhand (32.3%), and West Bengal (40.3%) [1, 2]. Hence there was a huge lacuna between demand and supply of electricity for rural popu- lation during 2011. Contrasting this, Ministry of Power, GOI has taken some profound initiative and had sanctioned around 921 projects to electrify 1,21,225 un-electrified villages, together with intensive electrification of 5,92,979 partially electrified villages and had provided free elec- tricity connections to 397.45 lakh BPL rural households [2]. With regards to this, electrification of rural areas has been transcended so far at an exceedingly swift rate. This includes out-breaking statistics for Bihar (95%), Assam (96.8%), Uttar Pradesh (98.7%), Odisha (91.9%), Jhark- hand (92.8%), and West Bengal (99.99%) [2]. To illustrate the above mentioned reforms in rural areas were resulted due to the announcement and propagation of Deendayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) by GOI with chief modifications in preexisting Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojna (RGGVY). The aims of the policy were strictly complied and include solidification and & Yogender Pal Chandra yogenderpal.chandra@fs.cvut.cz; yogender027mae@gmail.com 1 University Centre for Energy Efficient Buildings (UCEEB), Czech Technical University in Prague (CVUT), Prague, Czech Republic 2 Mechanical Engineering Department, Thapar University, Patiala, India 3 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Roorkee, India 4 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Delhi Technological University (DTU), Delhi, India 123 J. Inst. Eng. India Ser. C https://doi.org/10.1007/s40032-018-0454-6