For energy-starved India, solar has huge potential. By K Subramanya Some people paint a completely wrong picture of the relevance, requirement and importance of solar energy for India. They usually focus on the cost and affordability in a short-sighted way and ignore the larger issues of energy availability, the country’s energy security and climate change. It is important to place solar energy in the overall context of current energy basket of India — India desperately needs to tap renewable sources of energy given that 64.6 per cent of her power generation comes from fossil fuels including 53.3 per cent from coal and 10.5 per cent from gas, which, even high school students know are not going to last forever.
India has a huge advantage in terms of geography. It is uniquely placed to tap sunlight to meet part of her galloping energy requirements. Solar power fits in neatly with the requirements of today’s India — it is free and forever, it is clean and green, it is available everywhere, and almost everyday of the year. Go to Top. Solar power in India. National Solar Mission in India India is densely populated and has high solar insolation, an ideal combination for using solar power in India.. In the solar energy sector, some large projects have been proposed, and a 35,000 km2 (14,000 sq mi) area of the Thar Desert has been set aside for solar power projects, sufficient to generate 700 to 2,100 GW. Also India's Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has released the JNNSM Phase 2 Draft Policy,[1] by which the Government aims to install 10 GW of Solar Power and of this 10 GW target, 4 GW would fall under the central scheme and the remaining 6 GW under various State specific schemes.
According to a 2011 report by BRIDGE TO INDIA and GTM Research, India is facing a perfect storm of factors that will drive solar photovoltaic (PV) adoption at a "furious pace over the next five years and beyond". On 16 May 2011, India’s first 5 MW of installed capacity solar power project was registered under the Clean Development Mechanism. Applications[edit] India’s Solar Power. Posted on 15 May 2007. Editor’s Note: Using sunlight to create electrical and thermal energy remains the most promising source of clean renewable energy, and projections as to how quickly solar power takes off could be grossly understated. As the author points out, the costs for photovoltaic electricity, for example, have dropped by an order of magnitude in the last 30 years. The challenge however lies in just how much energy solar power would have to displace if it were to become the dominant source of energy in the world.
In 2006, according to the International Energy Agency, 80.3% of the world’s energy came from fossil fuel: Oil (34.3%), coal (25.1%) and gas (20.9%). Fully 90.9% of the world’s energy came from combustion, because alongside these fossil fuels in 4th place are “combustible renewables,” mostly wood (10.6%). So where does solar fit into this equation? India’s Solar Power – Greening India’s Future Energy Demand by Avilash Roul, May 15, 2007 India: Status of Solar Energy:
Clean energy supply chain in Karnataka villages, India - REEEP - The Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership. 100 % renewable electricity.