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The Indian Government on Monday declared a new solar policy called Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission – ‘Solar India’, to aid the development of solar energy in the nation.
New and Renewable Energy Minister, Farooq Abdullah said the Solar Mission is in line with the vision of modern India of Pandit Nehru. The Mission is one of the eight important National Missions that contains India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change.
“It has a twin objective - to contribute to India’s long term energy security as well as its ecological security,” Abdullah said.
“The Solar Mission recommends the implementation in three stages leading up to an installed capacity of 20,000 MW by the end of the 13th Five Year Plan in 2022,” he added.
Abdullah also said that the government has sanctioned setting up of 1,100 MW of grid solar power and 200 MW capacity of off-grid solar applications using both solar thermal and photovoltaic technologies in the first phase of the Mission.
He also added that the Mission would also centre on research and development and human resource development and toughen indigenous skills and improve indigenous content to make the Mission sustainable.
“The mission will have a very focused research and development programme which seeks to address the India-specific challenges in promoting solar energy,” Abdullah said.
“Mission will establish a single window investor-friendly mechanism, which reduces risk and at the same time, provides an attractive, predictable and sufficiently extended tariff for the purchase of solar power for the grid,” he added.
