Interim budget: India announces four 500 mw solar units

Thursday, February 20, 2014: In the effort to meet the capacity of 20,000 MW by 2022, the government of India has vowed to move forward at fast pace. The GOI took another step forward, this week, as after the proposals for a new ‘ultra-mega’ 4 GW solar power project in Rajasthan, it further announced the plans for four new 500 MW solar projects. P. Chidambaram, the finance minister in his interim budget address, earlier this week, declared plans for the new massive projects in the state of Gujarat, Jammu, Kashmir and Rajasthan. “It is proposed to take up four ultra-mega solar power projects, each with a capacity of over 500 MW, in 2014-15,” said Chidambaram in the Parliament. The announcement came after the 4 GW project, which is the largest solar change in the world. India aims to tap solar power and be able to produce 20 GW of solar capacity online by 2022. The first phase of the nationwide programme that was announced in 2010, achieved 1.6 GW capacity online. The government is however hopeful that the falling cost of solar energy will allow it to raise the setting up of solar PV capacities. The government’s plans are still under threat, since the US lodged its second complaint with the World Trade Organisation (WTO), last week. “These domestic content requirements discriminate against US exports by requiring solar power developers to use India-manufactured equipment instead of US equipment,” sad the US trade representative, Michael Froman in a public statement. “These unfair requirements are against WTO rules, and we are standing up for the rights of American workers and businesses.” Although, India did fight back against a similar complaint last year, where it arguing that the US offers similar incentives to American projects that use domestic labour and products and insisting that WTO rules allow it to exempt some strategic projects from non-discrimination obligations.