Coming Soon: Detailed Plan On India’s 100 GW Solar Power Ambition

May 18th, 2015 by Smiti

We may soon see a detailed plan on how India plans to achieve 100 GW solar power capacity by 2022.

The Indian minister for coal, power, and renewable energy, Piyush Goyal, has announced that a detailed plan on how his government plans to install an additional 97 GW capacity over the next 7 years would be finalised in a ‘few days.’

As mentioned in an earlier article, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy had asked PricewaterhouseCoopers to come up with an updated plan for the National Solar Mission. The upgraded capacity addition plan for the National Solar Mission was formally announced by the Indian government in February this year. The solar power target is part of the bigger plan to have 175 GW renewable energy capacity operational by 2022.

The Indian government had already mentioned some of the regulatory measures it would take to reached the seemingly impossible target of adding 12 GW capacity every year. The government has announced plans to set up ultra mega solar power projects of up to 4 GW capacity in 25 of the 29 states in the country; 19 of these projects have already been finalized. Apart from this, the central government will also auction off solar power projects as it has done in the past, with the capacity auctioned would be in tens of gigawatts. Additionally, the armed forces and nationalised companies — including the Indian Railways — have also been asked to set up large-scale solar power projects in the surplus land available to them.

India has a Renewable Energy Certificates (REC) schemes operational which represents about 17% of the total renewable energy capacity installed in country, and the government is reportedly planning to comprehensively revamp the REC market to attract further capacity addition. Several hundred megawatts capacity is also expected to be delivered through canal-top solar power projects.

Apart from central policies, programs, and auctions, the state governments will also implement their own policies to install several gigawatts capacity. At least 15 states in India have announced solar power policies.









Appreciate CleanTechnica’s originality? Consider becoming a CleanTechnica member, supporter, or ambassador — or a patron on Patreon.

Sign up for our free daily newsletter or weekly newsletter to never miss a story.

Have a tip for CleanTechnica, want to advertise, or want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.

Latest Cleantech Talk Episode