Solar power in India is gaining ground

Indian Prime Minister’s goal is to establish 100 GW of solar power by 2022

Indian Prime Minister’s goal is to establish 100 GW of solar power by 2022

In a country of 1.3 billion people, 300 million of them -mainly remote villagers- live without electricity. The top priority of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to change this situation. And even though he intends to double coal production in order to do so, he also wants to add 100 GW of solar-based power by 2022, a 20-fold increase from current capacity. Of course, the electric grid of 280 GW must also be expanded and modernized, as power outages frequently occur even in big cities.

The good news is that solar power prices are very competitive at present (within 15% of coal, according to KPMG Consulting), and a conservative forecast for 2020 is that electricity from solar power will be 10% cheaper than domestic coal. Nowadays, 60% of India’s energy production is based on coal. However, in a country with such a rapid economic growth and severe air pollution (13 of the world’s 20 most polluted cities are located in the country), it is very important to keep solar power prices low and minimize the use of coal as it has a huge social cost.

Watch the Discovery Channel documentary below for more information:

Source: CNN