India is endowed with abundant free solar energy. Using the country’s deserts and farm land and taking advantage of 300 to 330 sunny days a year, India could easily generate 5,000 trillion kilowatt-hours of solar energy. In other words, India could easily install around 1,000 GW of solar generation — equivalent to four times the current peak power demand (about 250 GW) — using just 0.5% of its land. In addition, India can produce over 200 GW from wind power. As economist and activist Jeremy Rifkin said, while speaking in New Delhi in January 2012: “India is the Saudi Arabia of renewable energy sources and, if properly utilized, India can realize its place in the world as a great power — but political will is required for the eventual shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy.”
India has set a target to have 100 GW solar power, 60 GW wind energy, 10 GW small hydro power, and 5 GW biomass-based power projects operational by March 2022., but Minister of Power, Coal, and New & Renewable Energy Piyush Goyal recently stated that the Indian Government will try to achieve this target of 175 GW renewable energy capacity by 2020 instead of the set timeline of 2022.
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