The amount of solar energy produced in India in 2007 was less than 1 per cent of the total energy demand. The grid-interactive solar power as of December 2010 was merely 10 MW. Government-funded solar energy in India only accounted for approximately 6.4 MW-yr of power as of 2005. However, India is ranked number one in terms of solar energy production per watt, installed with an insolation of 1,700 to 1,900 kilowatt hours per kilowatt peak (kWh/KWp). 25.1 MW was added in 2010 and 468.3 MW in 2011. By the end of March 2013 the installed grid connected photovoltaics (PV) had increased to 1686.44 MW, and India expects to install an additional 10,000 MW by 2017 and a total of 20,000 MW by 2022.
Gujarat has been a leader in solar power generation and contributes 2/3rd of the 900 MW of photovoltaics in the country. The State has commissioned Asia’s biggest solar park at Charanka village. The park is already generating 214 MW solar power out of its total planned capacity of 500 MW. The park has been functioning on a multi-developers and multi-beneficiaries paradigm and has been awarded for being the most innovative and environment-friendly project by the CII.
With a view to make Gandhinagar a solar city, the State government has launched a roof-top solar power generation scheme. Under this scheme, the State plans to generate five megawatt of solar power by putting solar panels on about 50 state government buildings and on 500 private buildings. The State also has a plan to emulate this project in Rajkot, Surat, Bhavnagar and Vadodara in 2012-13.
The State plans to generate solar power by putting solar panels on the Narmada canal branches. As a part of this scheme, the State has already commissioned a one megawatt solar plant on a branch of the Narmada Canal near Chandrasan area of Anand taluka. This also helps in stopping 90,000 liter water/year of the Narmada river from evaporating.
