Solar power for India

The best form of renewable energy available to the developing countries is the solar energy. This is due to the fast changing world energy scenario, particularly for emerging economies such as India and China on account of the rising costs of oil and coal. India is a small player in the world photovoltaic cells market, yet 69% of its modules are exported. The rest are put to use mainly in telecommunications and lighting homes. Solar PV modules are developed in the industrialised countries despite the fact that their energy efficiency is 15-20% is because of rising fossil fuel costs and the need to contain greenhouse gas emissions. Germany, Spain, Japan, China and the US are the leading PV module makers, with Germany making up almost half the world’s output of about 3,800 MW. China’s PV cell output was 820 MW in 2007, ten times that of India. It is time India broke into the big league, to take advantage of global technological transition. If wind power generation has risen sharply in the last decade to account for 80% of India’s renewable energy output of over 10,000 MW, the next decade could belong to solar. While the installed capacity for wind power is limited close to 8,000 MW, which is little more than 2 MW in the case of grid-connected solar power.