India needs to build solar four times faster to hit 10 GW 2017 target

India added only 827 megawatt of solar power generation capacity in the first three months of the current financial year. This is about one third of the pace needed to achieve a 10,000 megawatt addition in solar power target for this year.

India also has a target of having 100 gigawatt (100,000 megawatt) of solar power installed by 2022. It will primarily be large solar farms supplemented by grid-connected rooftop installations. This forms part of a large renewable energy program that scientists built a total of 175 GW of alternate power capacity, including 60 GW from wind and 10 GW from biogas.

According to the program, India should have achieved 12.7 MW of solar capacity at the end of March 2017. However, it achieved only 12.29 GW by adding a total of 5.53 GW in the year-ended March 2017.

17 Dec 2013, India - Asia's largest solar popwer station, the Gujarat Solar Park, in Gujarat, India - Image by (C) Ashley Cooper/Corbis

China had a total of 101.82 GW installed solar capacity by June, 2017. China added 24.4 GW in the first six months of 2017, the industry association said. It will soon reach 110 GW, the target Beijing had aimed to achieved by 2020. China is currently installing solar power at 14 times the pace of India (12.2 GW in 3 months versus 827 megawatts).