Three years after India declared a big-bang solar alliance, solar power remains in the shade
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World Bank Group president Jim Yong Kim (L) and Indian finance minister Arun Jaitley (R) with India's new and renewable energy Secretary Upendra Tripathy and World Bank country director, Unno Ruhl (2R), following the signing and exchange of agreement with the International Solar Alliance in New Delhi on June 30, 2016.
Synopsis
Solar energy has immense potential in sun-baked India, but the country needs to fix the pain points: low tariffs and utilisation of government-allocated funds, high safeguard and import duties, and overdependence on southern and western states for power generation. Meanwhile, China is blazing a trail.
An economy on steroids needs dollops of sunshine, the Chinese figured early, almost two decades ago. China has made big bets on solar energy, convinced it’s the future. And trust the Asian powerhouse to up its game and leap into a higher orbit. Literally. China now wants to launch solar-power stations in space to extract the sun’s energy before some of it scatters. No nation has gone there yet, deterred by the prohibitive costs involved. But the
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