News Brief | December 2014
India expands solar power target
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy recently released revised guidelines for auction of solar photovoltaic power projects with a significant hike in overall capacity. As per the revised target, the government plans to add 15 GW of solar power capacity by Q1 2019. The first of the auctions to meet these new targets will involve 1,000 MW of capacity. Under the original National Solar Mission target, India had planned to add 9 GW between 2014 and 2017 and an additional 10 GW between 2018 and 2022. The current installed solar power capacity in India is just under 2.7 GW. The 1,000 MW capacity will be set up as a solar park or ultra mega solar power project in Andhra Pradesh. Similar projects, with capacity of 500 MW or 1,000 MW, can be expected over the next few months.