Land acquisition remains a major bottleneck for utility-scale renewable energy projects in India. Suggest innovative land-free alternatives with examples.

Ground-mounted solar needs roughly 4–5 acres per MW, and acquiring that land triggers the consent, compensation and rehabilitation obligations of the RFCTLARR Act, 2013 [1] — adding cost, delay and conflict to India's 500 GW non-fossil target. Land-free models that reuse government-owned water and built-up surfaces offer a practical way around this constraint.

1. Canal-top photovoltaics (CTPV)

• Panels on elevated structures spanning canals need no fresh land and shade the water, cutting evaporation; India's first such plant came up at Chandrasan, Gujarat (2012) on a 750-m stretch of the Sanand branch canal [2].
• Punjab has commissioned about 20 MW of canal-top capacity through PEDA on the Sidhwan and Ghaggar branch canals, saving nearly 100 acres [3].

2. Floating solar on reservoirs (FSPV)

• The Pradhan Mantri Surya Sarovar Yojana (2026) commits ₹5,070 crore for 5,000 MW of floating solar with 10,000 MWh of co-located storage, sanctioned over FY2026-27 to FY2030-31 [4].
• NTPC Ramagundam (100 MW, Telangana), India's largest floating plant, demonstrates the model while curbing reservoir evaporation [5].

3. Rooftops and decentralised urban surfaces

• PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana, with an outlay of ₹75,021 crore for rooftop solar in one crore households, converts existing roofs into generation capacity with zero land footprint [6].

4. Dual-use of land already in production

• PM-KUSUM (₹34,422 crore; 34,800 MW target) promotes stilt-mounted plants and feeder solarisation on farmland, letting cultivation continue beneath [7].
• Similar dual-use potential exists along highway and railway rights-of-way and over warehouse and industrial roofs.

The binding cost, however, shifts from land to steel and civil structures, so these models scale only with dedicated central support and a separate benchmark tariff, as PM-SSY now provides for floating solar [4]. Extending that scheme logic to canal-top projects, backed by standard state right-of-way rules, would let India expand clean capacity without displacing farmers — aligning energy security with SDG-7 and equitable land use.