India Poised To Announce Solar Plan
It all started in June when The Hindu, one of India's national papers, published a story stating they had seen part of a draft for India's National Solar plan months before any official announcements had been made. Then the Reuters agency got a hold of part of the plan and more details leaked. Whoever was providing this leak must not have felt the coverage was enough as then Greenpeace published an entire copy of the draft report on its website leading to wild speculation and assumption that an official announcement had been given by the Indian government.
Nothing could be further from the truth as the Greenpeace document is a draft dated from back in April 2009. Anyone who had any involvement with India's Semiconductor Policy will know that there can be a great difference between a draft, a policy and implementation of national strategies. Many observers are treating this document as fact and expect that it will be released in much the same format in September when the government is expected to release the plan in an official capacity. There has been unconfirmed reports that the policy has been accepted in principle by the Prime minister but not which draft version.
Despite the potential divergence in plans the current draft document reveals a national plan that could see India surpass China in PV output by 2020 with the goal of installing 20GW of solar power by that time. To achieve this target, the government plan to invest $19 Billion over a thirty year period. The solar draft document is part of eight mission documents related to India's National Action Plan on Climate Change that aims to lower carbon emission while developing sustainable infrastructure foe the country. To give an idea of the amount we are talking about, the world currently produces about 14GW of solar energy.
Reuters state that an unnamed senior climate official claimed that there will be changes to the draft but the 20GW target is set in stone. This can only be good news for the PV industry as a whole. Government subsidies and long term sustainable plans have been the key economic drivers for the industry as it moves towards parity and self sufficiency.
As recently discovered in areas such as Spain and Japan, government subsidies create a false but explosive growth to a region that quickly shrinks as demand and capacity inequalities become the realities for the numerous companies that rush to reap the benefit of government subsidies. The sheer size of India's plans should counter this problem as providing that much capacity would ensure PV as a vital part of the country's energy needs. With the leaking of the draft to the media, all eyes will now be on India's government come September and the expectation will now be that the government announce a plan that is in line with the draft outlines.
The implementation of the plan is expected to occur in three stages with quantifiable progress in short, near and long term stages. The short term goal is to develop around 1.5GW by 2012 followed by 7GW by 2017 and the remainder by 2020 to achieve 20GW. To ensure a ready made infrastructure the government plans on making solar power mandatory for government buildings, hospitals and hotels. The plan would also include incentives for production, installation and for research and development.
Despite the size of the plan, India is in a perfect position to make use of its natural resources as well as developing new industries while meeting its international obligations for green house gas emissions as well as providing reliable energy to the whole country. The new plan is really an extension of the Semiconductor Policy but with the infrastructure already prepared from that policy the local area and companies are ripe to benefit from the new plan and will not rely on international companies to develop their plan that could see them the number one PV country within a decade.
