The Indian government will limit imports and encourage domestic manufacturing through public private partnerships to boost solar energy generation as power consumption goes up dramatically with the fast growing economy.
Mr Farooq Abdullah minister for new and renewable energy, while inaugurating a conference organised by ASSOCHAM, said that foreign companies must set up manufacturing facilities along with research and development centres if they want to enter India for solar power generation, he said
Mr Abdullah said that "This scale up will require a paradigm shift in the approach. We must continue to rely more on the regulatory framework, development of transmission infrastructure and developing innovative business models. The sector will require an investment of 20 billion dollars by 2017."
He said "The challenge is to introduce newer and efficient technologies which can lead to cost reduction and ultimately help in grid parity. There is need to grab opportunities in developing partnerships in all spheres of research, development, designing and setting up projects."
About 170 MW capacity of grid solar power has already been set up under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission. During its first phase, 1,100 MW capacity is envisaged by 2013. In the second phase, additional capacity of 10,000 MW capacity for various off grid applications has been sanctioned.
