As of April 2025, India's solar power installed capacity stands at 107.94 GW, making it the world's third-largest generator of solar power. In terms of generation, India produced 75.57 billion units (BU) of solar power in the first eleven months of FY24 (April 2023 to February 2024). The market size was valued at USD 10.4 billion in 2023, projected to reach USD 24.9 billion by 2030 at a CAGR of 13.4%.
A standalone solar energy producing plant in Maharashtra where the electricity is generated and transmitted through the grid, along with a corporate office in Haryana must comply with 799 unique regulatory obligations spread across 646 central, 153 state, and municipal requirements. These translate into 2,735 total compliance instances for a year.
From a regulatory category standpoint, labour-related compliances make up the largest share at 244, followed by secretarial (238), finance and taxation (84), environment, health, and safety (58) and industry-specific regulations (106). These are followed by commercial (38) and general (31) compliance requirements. These are just the unique number of obligations, that inflate once factored with different frequencies. A company also needs to manage obligations such as maintaining registers, making periodic payments, testing equipment, displaying statutory notices, handling audits, and reporting to various authorities.
The labour category entails 244 distinct compliances, which expand to 1,071 when accounted for their required frequency. These cover critical legislation, including the Employees’ Provident Fund Act, Maternity Benefit Act, Payment of Wages Act, Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, and others. Under the Factories Act and Maharashtra Factories Rules, for example, pressure plants must be tested every four years, a requirement that is often overlooked but carries legal consequences. Of the 83 compliance provisions that include imprisonment, 77.1% are from the labour category, making it the most criminalised category of law, as per TeamLease Regtech, Regulatory Technology (Regtech) solutions company.
The challenges grow significantly as businesses scale up operations and expand into new regions, and are further compounded by the absence of centralised regulatory visibility, inconsistent net metering policies across states, and lengthy approval processes requiring nearly 51 licenses and permits.
To enable ease of compliance, there should be collaboration with regulatory and industry stakeholders, maintaining of dynamic, digital compliance checklist, proactive tracking of legal and regulatory changes, and conducting of sector-specific due diligence and risk-based audits.
