Indias minister for power, coal and renewable energy, Piyush Goyal, has requested that all of Indias individual states submit a solar policy to the central government as part of the countrys ongoing push to ramp up its PV portfolio.
Acting as the head of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Goyal released a written statement in the Lok Sabha India's Assembly of the People stating that 14 states have so far issued solar policies, and revealed that a draft "model solar energy policy" has been sent to all states to offer guidance on how to meet clean energy targets.
Goyal also revealed that the MNRE has sanctioned 348 MW of new grid-connected rooftop PV projects across India, and has sought further private and foreign investment in the countrys wider renewable energy sector, which, the minister added, still has plenty of untapped potential.
"An estimated potential of 897 GW has been identified from various renewable energy sources in the country," said Goyal. "This includes 749 GW from solar, 103 GW from wind, 25 GW from bio-energy and 20 GW from small hydro power."
Foreign guidance
Goyal confirmed that the World Bank has "shown interest" in financing a solar PV project in the state of Andhra Pradesh, and it was also revealed this week global service network giant PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has been brought on board by the Indian government to draw up a roadmap for the scale-up of the countrys solar footprint.
PwC will assess Indias PV potential and critique MNREs current energy policies in an effort to fully determine a realistic power demand projection for the country. The analysts will also evaluate grid parity projections and the assess the capability of Indias grid, power evacuation systems and wider networks in handling rapid expansion to 100 GW of solar feed-in, which is the governments stated aim for 2022.
With a little more than 3 GW of cumulative solar PV capacity currently installed, India will have to add more than 12 GW of new solar PV capacity annually in order to reach its current solar target.
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