Newly elected PM Modi to boost solar power in India
Government led by Narendra Modi planning to boost solar power to give every home access to electricity by 2019 with 400 million people lacking access to electricity
India’s newly elected government, led by Narendra Modi, is planning to boost solar power in the country to give every home access to electricity by 2019, according to officials.
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept to power last week in the biggest electoral win in three decades.
Narendra Taneja, convener of the energy division at BJP said: “We look upon solar as having the potential to completely transform the way we look at the energy space.”
Around 400 million people in India lack access to electricity and the outgoing government led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh missed a 2012 target to provide electricity to all households.
Taneja explained that the five-year goal will require the cooperation of state-level administrations with which the central government shares control over the power industry.
Taneja said that solar panels could allow every home to have enough power to run two light bulbs, a solar cooker and a television.
Expanding clean energy generation is one of the new administration’s top energy-related priorities, with a particular focus on solar power due to its potential to create jobs and connect millions of households to the power grid.
Modi pioneered India’s first incentives for large-scale solar power in 2009 as chief minister of Gujarat state.
The party will look to Gujarat’s programme for reference as it designs policies on a national level that will include grid-connected photovoltaic projects and smaller, decentralised applications.
