The most important news this weekend on energy and the environment was the draft of a plan from the Indian government that could literally change the world’s market for both solar thermal and photovoltaïc.
To a local newspaper – The Hindu – the world’s largest democracy indeed would like to have 20 GW of solar energies by 2020, 100 GW by 2030 to finally reach 200 GW twenty years later.
This plan is very ambitious but we will have to see if it becomes real. If so, the country would clearly become a leader in this industry.
To the Worldwatch Institute’s article, this additional capacity would represent more electricity that the country is currently generating. With more than 250 sunny days,there is a lot of energy awaiting to be tapped.
I already knew solar would become an important energy source there as I wrote two academic papers on this very subject:
- Feasibility of using Renewable Energies Solutions in Mumbai (Dissertation written during my B.A. in international business and languages at the Dublin Institute of Technology ; Ireland)
- Selling solar panels to the middle class in Maharashtra State (paper written for my International Marketing Communications class during my Master’s in International Management at the Audencia Nantes Management School ; France)
However, I would never have thought this could become this big…
For more on these great news, please check out Ecogeek, TreeHugger and the original article from The Hindu.