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Solar energy investment looking up in India

 Sunny side up: Solar energy business looks up in India as tariffs fall, Business Today,  K.R. Balasubramanyam        Edition: Feb 5, 2012 In October last year, Moser Baer Clean Energy commissioned a 30 megawatt (MW) photovoltaic (PV) farm at Banaskantha district in north Gujarat. The plant will supply an estimated 52 million units of energy in a year – roughly the amount that Kerala consumes in a day. 
Earlier this month, the Adani Group announced that it had commissioned a 40-MW solar power project , touted as the country’s largest, in Gujarat’s Kutch district. For Adani, India’s largest private thermal power producer, it is the first major project in the renewable energy space.

But it is Solairedirect that has really set the new benchmark. The French company’s bid of Rs 7.49 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), equivalent to 15 US cents, for its proposed 5 MW plant in Pokhran, Rajasthan, is by far the lowest tariff quoted under India’s ambitious Solar Mission. In comparison, the price per kWh is about 23 US cents in Germany, the world’s biggest solar power user.

Each project underlines the importance that is now being given to solar energy in India. The country, sundrenched for more than 300 days a year, is ideally suited to use it. But while the potential is well known, India has remained far behind Europe and the US, both in manufacturing and project capacities.

Now, the central and state governments are slowly working to harness the power of the sun. In January 2010, the Centre launched the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, which targets setting up a generation capacity of 20,000 MW by 2022.  In addition, 21 states are pursuing their own programmes, which optimists reckon will add another 10,000 MW over the next 10 years. Thus far, Gujarat and Rajasthan, blessed with the largest incidence of solar radiation, have attracted the largest inflows of investment.

Just three years ago, grid-connected solar power in the country was less than 12 MW. By the end of 2011, India had acquired 190 MW in solar power generation capacity. By March 2013, that figure will grow five-fold to 1,000 MW under the Solar Mission targets alone.

Investor interest is rapidly growing. “There is an increased awareness about the opportunities in India among investors globally because of the decline in Europe, and China being a closed market,” says Thomas Maslin, a Washington DC-based analyst with global consulting firm IHS Emerging Energy Research….. http://businesstoday.intoday.in/story/solar-energy-in-india-business-tariffs/1/21752.html

January 19, 2012 - Posted by | India, renewable

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