Solar Power Set to Steamroll into India: 6,000 MW by 2017

Solar power is a key to India's plans to tackle climate change, and last week the government said it expects to have 6,000 megawatts of installed solar capacity by 2017.

Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh said the Jawarharial Nehru National Solar Mission, launched last week, has planned 20,000-MW of installed capacity by 2022.  The National Solar Mission plan is to drive down the cost of solar power through its rapid scale-up of capacity. 

Ramesh was quick to add that installations in the next couple of years will be slow, comparatively.  However, by 2017 he expects the country to have at least 5,000 to 6,000 megawatts of installed solar power; this is a larger number than the National Solar Mission originally stated.

The private sector will do the majority of the installation, while the government creates the right environment to draw investors, project developers, and innovative technology.

The goal of the National Solar Mission is to curb India's dependence on coal in fast-tracked way that does not generate a huge spike in energy costs.  As Ramesh highlights, "We want to replicate the mobile telephony revolution in solar energy [un]til the cost of solar energy continues to fall very drastically."

Read the full story at The Economic Times:  India to have 6,000 MW solar power by 2017