India basks in solar glory

From Ladakh in the north to Madurai in the south, solar power is turning India into a hot destination for clean energy investments from across the globe. Chetan Chauhan reports. Sunshine state India

Updated on: Jun 5, 2013, 11:17:31 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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From Ladakh in the north to Madurai in the south, solar power is turning India into a hot destination for clean energy investments from across the globe.

The-solar-photovolatic-power-plant-at-Tangtse-Durback-block-Ladakh-Located-14-500-AMSL-in-the-Himalayas-the-plant-supplies-electricity-to-a-clinic-a-school-and-347-houses-for-around-five-hours-every-day

The good news comes at a time when money flow into low-carbon economies is falling across the world. The investment is all the more welcome because India has suffered its lowest economic growth (5%) in a decade.

"The investment in clean technologies increased by 11% in 2012 in India, second largest after China," planning commission deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia said at the recent clean energy ministerial forum in Delhi.

With around 44% of Indian villages without regular power connection and peak time power deficit of 8-10%, solar power is a viable option for policymakers.

In just five years, states such as Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, which get more than 300 days of bright sun in a year, have made the most from solar revolution.

Gujarat and Rajasthan have increased their solar generation by over five times in this period, while other states have more than doubled their capacity. Around 700 million square hectares in India have solar installations.

Tarun Kapoor, joint secretary in-charge of solar mission in the ministry of new and renewable energy, said solar power could be cheaper than the conventional coal-based electricity in 2014.

The generation cost of solar power has dipped from Rs 17 per unit in 2008-09 to Rs 6.45 in Rajasthan and Rs 6.49 in Tamil Nadu now. It is expected to come down to Rs. 6 by the end of 2013.

The solar energy sector is also seeing a healthy competition between states. Maharashtra first came up with India's biggest solar farm of 125 MW.

The record may not stand for long. Madhya Pradesh is gearing up to commission a solar station of 151 MW in August. It would not be a surprise if Gujarat upgrades its solar farm to claim the record.

Though solar energy has taken big strides in recent year, conventional thermal power will remain India's main energy source in the foreseeable future.

"One of the (obvious) problems with solar energy is its unavailability in peak hours (early morning and late evenings)," said a planning commission official.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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