Generating 100 GW solar power ambitious, not impossible:Report

India's plan to generate 100,000 MW (100 GW) solar power by 2020 is a "very ambitious" target keeping in view the funding requirements and land acquisitions, says a report.
"A ramp up from the current 3,000 MW to 100,000 MW sounds very ambitious from various perspectives. It means: an annual growth of 55 per cent over 8 years, USD 100 bn in investments (at current prices), 5 lakh acres of land, massive new infrastructure and convincing of often bankrupt state discoms to buy all this solar power," Tobias Engelmeier, Director and Founder, Bridge to India said in a statement.
Bridge to India is a company engaged in businesses like Strategic Consulting, Market Intelligence and Project Development.

Power Minister Piyush Goyal had recently announced plans to generate 100,000 MW or 100 GW of solar power by 2020.
"Add to the ambitious solar plan a significant build-up of another intermittent power source, wind, and we are looking at around 20 per cent from intermittent power sources," Engelmeier said adding this is not impossible, but the challenges have to be clearly addressed.
"While coal, for the mid-term lack of alternatives and its price competitiveness (not pricing in negative externalities), will continue to play a major role in India, the country should "for its own sake try to take full advantage of solar and accelerate its energy transition," adds Jasmeet Khurana, Senior Manager Consulting at Bridge to India.

"Attracting enough investment to build 100 GW will be key. Investors like certainty," Ajay Goel, CEO of Tata Power Solar, said.
"I believe that achieving 100 GW is quite possible, even the 20 GW target looked very ambitious when it was announced in 2009. If there is support from the government on land acquisition and evacuation policies," Pashupathy Shankar Gopalan, M D, South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, Sun Edison said.
"If there is consistency in the investment flow in this sector, it would not be a difficult ride for the sector from where it is today," he said.