India looking to more clean energy

Posted on July 20, 2009
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india-power Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in India today, where energy topics are on the table. Debate over India’s participation in international climate talks and the announcement of two US built nuclear power plants are a couple of the stories coming out of India this morning. But clean energy in India–wind, solar and biomass–is also starting to find its way into the news.

According to the Washington Post, India plans to jump start solar power production, going from zero to 20,000 megawatts by 2010. Already the country gets 3% of it’s power from renewable sources and declining domestic coal supplies (and increasing pressure to stop producing so much CO2) is making clean energy seem like a better idea all the time.

But India is no different than the United States or any other country–there is a big role for government to play to get the clean energy industry rolling:

“Unless the government guarantees that it will purchase solar power at a lucrative cost with feed-in tariffs, the industry will not take off. We end up exporting three-fourths of solar cells and photovoltaic modules to Europe,” said an executive of a solar power company, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “The government has to cough up money and go beyond making the right noises about renewable energy.”

The government traditionally has given incentives for setting up green energy plants, but not for producing power. “Entrepreneurs made quick money by setting up plants, availing of tax benefits and then disappearing. Nobody was interested in ensuring that they actually produced electricity,” said Vinuta Gopal, a climate change campaigner for Greenpeace India.

The NYTime’s Tom Friedman says we’re going to beat developing countries like China and India to the clean energy punch. I hope he’s right, but sometimes I’m not so sure.

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