Saturday, December 07, 2013: India has some very ambitious plans when it comes to solar power. In the latest development, Gujarat Energy Research and Management Institute has managed to bring down the fixed cost of setting up a solar power plant with its research and development. The cost has been brought down to just Rs 35 million per megawatt.
Speaking at the ongoing Sixth CII Energy Expo and ‘India Energy Conclave’, T. Harinarayana Director, GERMI, told Hindu Business Line, “About seven years ago, the fixed cost attached for a 1 MW solar power plant was about Rs 150 million, which we have brought down to Rs 70 million. GERMI’s R&D efforts have successfully brought down the cost further to Rs 35 million by using graphite and silicone in solar cells. The laboratory experiments are successful and now we are trying it for industrial scale.”
Rahool Panandiker, who is the partner and director of Boston Consulting Group said that it is important to increase LNG imports by 10 times to meet the power needs of the country. And if not done in time, the domestic power situation in India could become more severe.
According to the report, Harinarayana said India has a landmass 10 times that of Germany but had a solar power generation capacity of only 1.3 gigawatt (GW), compared to 31 GW installed capacity in the European nation. “To use this resource, we need to bring down the cost of solar energy and to serve this purpose, we should be more focused on research and development activities.”
