One significant news story that has almost gone unnoticed relates to India’s likely emergence as a global leader in solar power. A new World Bank report positions the country as the potential global leader in solar power and as one of the lowest cost destinations. PES investigates…
The World Bank report ‘Paving the way
for transformational future: Lessons from JNNSM Phase 1′ offers a very sunny view of the solar power sector in the country.
“In a short span of three years, India has made impressive strides in developing its abundant solar power potential. With more than 300 million people without access to energy and industry citing energy shortage as key growth barrier in India, solar power has the potential to help the country address the shortage of power for economic growth,” Onno Ruhl, World Bank country director in India, has been quoted as saying.
“However, while India is clearly emerging as a global leader in the area of solar power, to achieve its target of adding 20,000 MW of solar capacity by 2022, it needs to address the key barriers and constraints that could come in the way of scaling up the solar program,” Ruhl said.
JNNSM stands for the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission. Once you get past the slightly disturbing inevitability naming every major project by individuals from a specific family, you do begin to see the enormously transformation potential of solar power for India. We all know that almost the entire country is baked by the sun for the better part of the year.
Of course, there are significant challenges as pointed out by the report. It highlights many of them that could inhibit India from tapping its full potential by 2022. “These include lack of access to low cost financing; inadequate solar infrastructure; lack of raw materials for several solar PV (photovoltaic) manufacturers; and an underdeveloped supply chain leading to high inventory costs.”
