The Hindu Business Line : Sops likely to cut solar power equipment costs

Mumbai, Nov. 13 The National Solar Mission, which plans to add about 20,000 MW by 2022, would be announced in a week by the Prime Minister, said Dr Farooq Abdullah, Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy.

He was addressing the media at the India Energy 2009 exhibition organised by United Business Media here on Friday.

Dr Abdullah said that to generate solar power, the Centre was looking at public-private partnership models. It is also looking at ways to bring down the manufacturing cost for solar power equipment. The Mission would consider offering various sops such as concession in import duties on equipment and providing subsidy on power generated from solar sources so that it becomes economically viable for the producers, he said.

“The Mission will give a tremendous boost to the manufacturing sector in India and appliances made (under the Mission) will be affordable to the common man. There will be financial incentives for manufacturing equipment for the solar power sector,” Dr Abdullah said.

While steering clear of details on numbers, he said the money spent by the Centre would be huge. “Till date, we have only 3 MW of solar power so you can image the quantum jump which the mission will take in terms of generating solar power” he said. On the wind power front, he said the Centre was committed to increasing capacity from 10,500 MW to 15,000 MW.

According to Dr Abdullah, as supplying diesel to hilly terrain such as Jammu & Kashmir or Ladakh is expensive, the Government is looking at tapping green energy sources such as solar, small hydro and wind for power generation,.

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