Saturday, September 06, 2014: General Electric Co (GE) thinks that clean energy power plants will become more attractive investment than coal or natural gas projects in India. GE has invested $24 million in India’s largest solar power project in April. It’s a 151-megawatt (MW) plant which is being developed by Welspun Group. Other than that it also invested in three Indian wind farms in July.
Mahesh Palashikar, GE’s India head of renewables, told at a conference in Noida, “Wind and solar will continue to offer significant value over other fuels for several decades.” Fuel-supply constraints are constantly creating problems for conventional power projects leading to rising costs. This issue doesn’t look to be resolved quickly. Hence more electricity needs to be generated at lower wind speeds, as told by Palashikar.
Solar electricity will be pervasive soon in India as rooftop solar panels are increasing to address power cuts and power crisis issues across several cities. Palashikar’s statements echo Narendra Modi’s thoughts as he also wants to promote solar electricity across the nation through farm irrigation pumps, village huts and mall rooftops with photovoltaic panels. Until now India’s 2700MW solar power is being sponsored and developed by BlackRock Inc.-backed SunEdison Inc. and Helion Venture Partners LLC-supported Azure Power India Pvt. Ltd.
Modi aims to expand the solar industry through smaller installations across rooftops which has already helped Germany and Japan to emerge as market leaders in the world’s solar industry. Palashikar said further, “For urbanization, you certainly need decentralization—there’s no two ways about it.” GE has been targeting solar panels on commercial and industrial rooftops like IT parks and factories, which pay the highest electricity bills.
