India joins China in plans to increase solar power

Saturday, 14 November 2009 05:58

Written by CP

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India is targeting generation of 20,000 megawatts of solar power by 2022, joining China as the two Asian nations that resist emission caps draft plans to boost renewable energy before next month’s global climate change talks.

India, Asia’s third-biggest energy consumer, is set to unveil its national solar energy plan “in about a week,” Minister for New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah said in Mumbai today.

China and India have opposed legally binding caps as industrialized nations seek commitments for programs that will curb the output of gases blamed for global warming. The two fastest-growing major economies balk at emission targets because their energy usage is projected to rise as more people are lifted out of poverty.

“It’s not a big challenge in terms of technology or engineering,” said Shirish Garud of the Energy and Resources Institute in New Delhi. “The major challenge will be in mobilizing the financing.”

Solar capacity costs anywhere from 160 million rupees to 200 million rupees per megawatt to install, Garud said. Abdullah didn’t give details of spending, saying only that the amount would be “huge.”

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh plans to discuss India’s solar plan at talks with U.S. President Barack Obama, Abdullah said. Obama will host Singh at the first state dinner of his presidency on Nov. 24.

Copenhagen Talks

The plan will be presented at next month’s climate talks in Copenhagen, where nations will see it as a sign of India’s commitment to curb emissions. Delegates from 192 nations will try to reach agreement on a global accord in the Danish capital to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

The South Asian nation currently generates about three megawatts of solar power, Abdullah told reporters. China, which is preparing to more than double its output of alternative energy, may increase its solar capacity to 20,000 megawatts by 2020, according to Cui Rongqiang, head of the Shanghai Solar Energy Society.

“If India is able to produce enough energy that is not polluting, the whole world will welcome this,” Adbdullah said. India won’t commit to anything that would “stop our development, our progress at any cost,” he said.

The U.S. has urged India to “leap-frog” past developed countries and create a more energy-efficient infrastructure to become a world leader in clean technology industries.