India targets 20 giga watts of solar power by 2022, AP leads

India has millions of hectares of desert and barren lands making them attractive for solar farms. The states like Rajastan, Andhra Pradesh, Maharastra, Madhaya Pradesh, Karnataka have large patches of lands, which don't receive enough rains making them more suitable for solar farms. Both for economic and environment reasons solar is right way for a country like India which receives enough sunshine through out the year.

Andhra Pradesh is leading in attracting investment both in solar farms and solar cell fabrication and manufacturing facilities. Andhra Pradesh has hosted one of the world's popular solar event Solarcon in Hyderabad.

Chief Minister Shri K. Rosaiah has inaugurated Solarcon India 2009, a 3-day ongoing (Nov 9-11 2009) exhibition and conference organized by Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International in association with Intersolar. Solarcon is supported by MNRE, and IREDA, Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corp (APIIC) and AP Invest. Indian Semiconductor Association is also partner of this event.

The immediate projects initiated by AP govt. include solar farm near Kadiri, Anantapur, a dry place around 100 kms from Bangalore. On the manufacturing side, Hyderabad has provided manufacturing eco for semiconductor IC and solar PV cells, the facility is called Fab City.

The solar semiconductor companies who have already established manufacturing facilities or in the process of setting up in AP include, Moser Baer PV, Solar Semiconductor, Sunborne, Lanco Solar, AES Solar and Titan Energy, and KSK Surya.

The solar technology researcher Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems is also engaged with authorities here to start solar testing centre in Fab City.

The companies gravitating towards Hyderabad is much higher than any other region in India.

Correction: Earlier version of this news article with title sentence "India targets 20 giga watts of solar power by 2020" is corrected now as "India targets 20 giga watts of solar power by 2022" based on the inputs from the latest solar india report from website "http://mnre.gov.in". Date of correction: 24th Nov 09.