India is on 5th Position Globally in Solar Power Plant Deployment
Solar power installations are increasing rapidly around the world as countries step up their renewable energy efforts and attempt to cut carbon emissions from electricity generation. Surpassing Italy, India achieved 5th global position in solar power deployment. There has been a visible impact of solar energy in the Indian energy scenario during the last few years. Solar power capacity has increased tremendously from 2.6 GW in March 2014 to 30 GW in July 2019.
National Institute of Solar Energy has assessed the Country’s solar potential of about 748 GW assuming 3% of the wasteland area to be covered by Solar PV modules. Solar energy has taken a central place in India's National Action Plan on Climate Change with the National Solar Mission as one of the key Missions. National Solar Mission (NSM) was launched on 11th January 2010. NSM is a major initiative of the Government of India with active participation from States to promote ecologically sustainable growth while addressing India’s energy security challenges.
It will also constitute a major contribution by India to the global effort to meet the challenges of climate change. The Mission’s objective is to establish India as a global leader in solar energy by creating the policy conditions for solar technology diffusion across the country as quickly as possible. The Mission targets installing 100 GW grid-connected solar power plants by the year 2022. This is in line with India’s Intended Nationally Determined Contributions(INDCs) target to achieve about 40 percentage cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources and to reduce the emission intensity of its GDP by 33 to 35 percentage from the 2005 level by 2030. In order to achieve the above target, the Government of India has launched various schemes to encourage the generation of solar power in the country like Solar Park Scheme, VGF Schemes, CPSU Scheme, Defence Scheme, Canal bank & Canal top Scheme, Bundling Scheme, Grid Connected Solar Rooftop Scheme etc.
Energy demand across India is expected to grow more than any other region over the coming decades and, as the world’s third-largest carbon emitter, policies are being developed to shift the country away from fossil fuels like coal in favour of renewables.
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