India aims to mobilise around $1 trillion of investment
in solar energy by 2030 in collaboration with the global
agencies.
Led by India, the World Bank signed an agreement
with the ISA, consisting of 121 countries. As a part of the
alliance, it has committed to provide $1 billion support
to Indian solar energy projects, including solar rooftop
technology, infrastructure for solar parks and innovative
hybrid technologies among others.
As a part of the agreement, the World Bank will give
$625 million for the Grid Connected Rooftop Solar Pro-
gramme alone. Apart from that the development of a
$200-million infrastructure for the Solar Parks Project
is also under preparation under a public-private part-
nership model.
“India’s plans to virtually triple the share of renewable
As a part of the plan, each
city has to reduce their
projected energy demand by
10% over 5 years
energy by 2030 will both transform the country’s energy
supply and have far-reaching global implications in the
fight against climate change,” said World Bank Presi-
dent, Jim Yong Kim.Opportunity
“The Indian Solar power sector has tremendous scope
for growth. As an industry, we are hopeful that the sector
will achieve the target of 20 GW capacity of solar power
by 2020,” Premier Solar Systems Chairman Surender
Pal Singh said.
The government has set a target of producing 100 Gi-
gawatts of solar power by 2022. Out of this ambitious
goal, 20 GW is to be produced from solar parks, 40 GW
from roof-top and another 40 GW from distributed gen-
eration projects. India’s current solar capacity is more
than 8,000 MW, The country is expected to install
10,500 MW in the current fiscal itself, making it the
fourth largest solar market globally. The solar develop-
ment pipeline now stands at 22 GW with over 13 GW
under construction. Project tenders for 20,766 MW
have been already issued so far. The government has also
signed agreement for power purchase for 8,482 MW.
Solar park is another area where government is focus-
sing. The Ministry of New & Renewable Energy is keen
to set up 25 solar park with a cumulative capacity of
20,000 MW, in addition to the already launched such
programme of 20,000 MW in 2014.Challenges
Market players say that, although desirable, the target
is over ambitious, given the multiple challenges.
One of the challenges is huge investment required for
the project. A latest report by consulting and advisory
firm RBSA on solar power in India, said that the require-
ment of 5,00,000 MVA by 2022 will need an investment
of Rs 43,000 crore. Also the 5.6 GW per annum solar
module manufacturing capacity would be inadequate to
meet the annual demand for 15 GW as of now.
“At a capital cost of Rs 5.30 crore per MW, the cost of
setting up 1,00,000 MW of solar plants is estimated at
Rs 5.30 lakh crore. Even at a debt-to-equity ratio of 1:3,10
The percentage of
the total energy
requirement of the
smart cities which
has to come from
the solar energy