As per the Union Minister for Power, Coal, New and Renewable Energy, Piyush Goyal, the government is soon going to announce a policy to boost manufacturing in the solar energy sector.
He said that the proposed policy is going to aim at promoting end-to-end manufacturing of solar panels. He also said that “I see a potential for manufacturing capacity of 10 GW for the 3-4 years. Domestic manufacturing in India would be cheaper than anywhere in the world”.
The government has also raised the solar power generation target from 20,000 MW to 100,000 MW by 2022 . Mr Goyal also said that the policy will take care of the issue regarding high power tariffs which have been impacting the potential for manufacturing. Further, he pointed out that the states including Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh can manufacture solar panels as they have surplus power. The Chief Ministers from these states have given their assurance that they are going to promote solar manufacturing.
Apart from these, the Ministry is also planning for a Cabinet note to approve 25 more solar parks. The minister said that the main reason behind promoting solar parks was the drastic dip in prices at the NTPC auctions. He also said that the Ministry is working at obtaining long-term funding through World Bank. Mr Goyal pointed out that they are making efforts to have pension and insurance funds invest in the sectors. He is planning to make hydro and bio-fuels his next area of focus.
