US firms plan to build 20,000 MW solar power in India

US solar firms SunEdison and First Solar have announced plans to build more than 20,000 megawatts of solar energy capacity in India by 2022.

The companies' India plans were announced Sunday at the start of the first Renewable Energy Global Investors Meet and Expo (Re-Invest) here being held Feb 15-17 to attract large scale investments for solar and wind power generation in the country. The three-day meet was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"India has a critical need to add capacity to its grid as it continues to experience strong economic growth and growing demand for energy," said Pashupathy Gopalan, president of SunEdison Asia-Pacific.

SunEdison said it would build 15,200 MW of solar and wind power capacity by 2022, while First Solar made a commitment to develop 5,000 MW by 2019.

The Rajasthan government recently entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Sun Edison India and Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services for establishing a solar park with a generation capacity of 5,000 MW.

India wants to raise its energy mix from renewables to 15 percent, from the current six percent in a period of 10-12 years, Power and New and Renewable Energy Minister Piyush Goyal told the conference.

The government has revised upwards the target of solar power generation from 20,000 MW by 2022 to 100,000 MW by 2020.

Towards increasing the use of clean energy, the India-US nuclear agreement, concluded during President Barrack Obama's visit here last month, has eased the way for foreign firms to develop nuclear energy in India.