Of late, there seems to be a sudden rise in hype around the word 'Solar Power' in India. Sometime last week, Kerala (located in the southern part of India) became the proud home to what is being touted as the first airport in the world to operate completely on solar power. Cochin International Airport (in Kerala) now houses a 12 mw solar power plant, capable of generating as much as 21 million units of electricity each year, basis 20% CUF.
Naturally, most newspapers came flushed with stories about India and its new solar power dream, rechristened by the Narendra Modi government. Being an analyst, I couldn’t resist, but douse myself into some of these beautifully written pieces only to understand that India has actually been making a serious progress in its mission to make the maximum use of its sun-ny days.
For the uninitiated, India is currently in the midst of ramping up its solar power generation. In June 2015, the Indian government approved plans to increase the country’s solar power capacity target to a jaw-dropping 100 gw (i.e. 100,000 mw) by 2022. The erstwhile government, under Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, had set a target of 20 gw of grid connected solar power by 2022.
Considering the establishment costs of recent projects in the industry, an installation of such stature would require an investment of ~ USD100 billion or INR5-6 lac crores.
Most would agree that this is an unreasonable target. However, before we write this off. Read on…
In June 2015, SoftBank announced a partnership with Bharti Enterprises and Foxconn Technology to invest at least USD20 billion in solar energy projects in India. As per a Reuters report, Adani Group is currently in talks with both Softbank and Foxconn to secure investment in a USD3 billion project to make solar cells and panels in the country. Furthermore, SunEdison, OAO Rosneft, Reliance ADAG, NTPC and a few more are on the cusp of announcing hefty solar power investments in India.
Solar power in India has witnessed impressive growth in a short span of time – from just 35 mw as of March 2011 to over 4,000 mw as of now. As per the latest data available on MNRE, the five states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, comprise more than 80% of this entire 4,000+ mw solar power capacity.
While all the above data is easy to come by, one special feature to the readers of blog are the names of top 10 solar power producers in India.
Click here to access the list of all solar power plants in India, by company, state and capacity.
PS – The above data is purely based on secondary research and may differ from actual
Its great to know India's progress on the solar front. Thanks for sharing this.
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