India’s Solar Plans

Last week India’s Prime Minister has publicly approved of its “national solar mission”. This will be a huge project aimed at India’s solar energy development. Nowadays the quantity of electricity India gets from solar power plant amounts to 3 GW and this number is planned to increase to 20 GW by 2020 and 200 GW by 2050. This is going to be a part of national climate change strategy and it will cost India approximately $ 20 billion. Not so long ago India’s government claimed it doesn’t approve of the objectives of Kyoto protocol and will not reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emissions. No wonder, most of India’s economy sectors are based on carbon fuel. But, seeing the renewable sources incentives of the Indian government such claims obviously are caused by the fear to worsen already difficult conditions Indians have to live in. India’s plans seem huge and almost impossible, taking into account the fact that the total yearly amount of solar energy generated in the world equals to 16.5 GW. India’s solar mission is the most massive project of this kind. If it is successful, India will become the world leader in solar energy production, attract a lot of new investments and create millions of jobs. Indian experts say that if their calculations are correct, the price of solar electricity will become equal to that of mineral fuel in the nearest 5 or 10 years. But to achieve this India needs not only capital flow and governmental control, but also creating beneficial conditions for the development of solar power economy like those created in Germany and Japan. These countries are receiving minimal solar activity but their solar power economy is extremely developed.