India Plans Association Of Top 50 Solar Power Nations

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India plans to unleash a renewable energy revolution practically unheard of. Until now we used to watch in disbelief as Chinese regulators repeatedly revised solar power capacity addition targets to very high levels in extremely short spans of time.

India, it seems, is looking to outdo its Asian neighbour.

RE-INVEST India

Soon after taking oath as India’s 15th Prime Minister, Narendra Modi made his renewable energy policy very clear. His government set an ambitious target to add 100 GW renewable energy capacity by 2022. That is 3 times the current renewable energy installed capacity.

To achieve this target the government organised an investor summit called RE-INVEST. Modi has successfully organised such summits while being the chief minister of Gujarat. Through such summits, Gujarat had managed to set up Asia’s largest solar park.

At this summit the Indian government announced that it will form an association of 50 countries rich in solar energy resource. The idea was first floated by Prime Minister Modi himself at the first meeting of the council of ministers on climate change last month.

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As mentioned in an earlier article covering that announcement, India aims to encourage research and development to further reduce costs related to solar power generation. The real motive behind such an association of nations could be entirely different though.

All countries are required to submit their plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as part of the run-up to the climate change summit at Paris at the end of the year. India has made it clear that it will not take up any targets to reduce its absolute GHG emissions. Instead, the government plans to quantify the emission reduction achieved through renewable energy projects and present it as a just contribution towards fighting climate change.

The real motive of this association could be to lobby for a wider acceptance of such an exercise as part of the new climate change treaty.

Image Credit: via @ReInvest2015


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