The future is bright for solar in India

Thanks to their ambitious national solar policies, in less than two years the price of solar PV panels in India have dropped dramatically. 

Solar energy is fast approaching the price of fossil fuels and if their policies remain on track, India has the potential to become a world leader in solar development. For any nation, clean energy leadership would be something of a coup.

With the future for solar in India so bright, the country is a shining example to the rest of the world when it comes to unleashing the potential that is clean green renewable energy. The Indian Government has sent itself an ambitious target of reaching 20 gigawatts of solar energy by the year 2022, and while the nation clearly has a long way to go, what India has achieved in just the last two years alone is impressive.

The solar market has been completely transformed, thanks to India’s National Solar Mission, which has returned some really impressive figures. Its installed solar capacity reached more than 500MW under the first phase of the project, jumping from 17.8MW. Prices of solar dropped to Rs. 7.49/kWh ($0.15 USD/kWh) which means the renewable energy is fast approaching grid parity, meaning it can compete with traditional fossil fuels like gas and coal.

The fact that the market is so young makes the feat all the more inspiring. It’s certainly no wonder the rest of the world is closely monitoring India’s solar developments, with a view to trying to replicate their successes in a global solar market that has taken more than its fair share of knocks recently.

Published by Katie Anderson on May 3rd, 2012