Friday, January 17, 2014: India reportedly runs a peak-hour electricity shortfall of around 12 per cent with 40 per cent of rural Indian households living without power for a considerable period. But India boasts more than 300 sunny days a year in some parts along with large tracts of desert while a big chunk of the nation lies near the equator. There is indeed a huge market for solar power in the country but to no avail, for the prices to generate the same have been huge with minimal profits, till now.
There has been a rapid fall in the cost per unit of solar electricity to close to what is known as “grid parity” or the cost of conventional electricity generated by carbon-gas emitting coal in recent years. Manufacturers are therefore flipping the switch on huge new solar energy projects now more than ever.
The drive to harness the sun’s power began in earnest with the 2010 creation of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission by the current Congress-led UPA Government. Since 2010, India has hiked installed solar power capacity from a meagre 17.8-MW to more than 2,000 MW as part of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s aim to make “the sun occupy centre-stage” in the country’s energy mix. The number still represents just one-eighth of India’s total installed power base, but the government believes the share will rise as prices for solar infrastructure keep falling, which they are.
The country will build the world’s largest solar plant in the next stage of expansion to generate 4,000 MW on the shores of a saltwater lake in Rajasthan, which should drive solar power costs even lower. The sprawling project makes it comparable with very large coal-fired power projects. Meanwhile, Charanka, in Gujarat, is currently Asia’s biggest solar plant, producing 214 MW.
The price fall is also the result of global financial crisis, which cut demand for equipment in developed nations, and vast Chinese expansion that created an equipment glut. However, even though India has the potential to be a world leader it is still significantly behind many nations in generating solar power. Even though the market is booming, Indian solar-equipment companies have not been profiting India. India has been importing equipment, mainly from China, but also from the United States and Taiwan and unless imports are curbed, the country will never develop an indigenous industry.
