For those interested in solar topics, some recent news out of India is sure to pique the curiousity. Earlier this month, the Prime Minister's Council on Climate Change announced a plan to increase solar energy production in a massive way. By way of example, the hope is that solar installations will produce about 20 gigawatts of electricity by 2020. Worldwide solar production is currently less than that.
Though the upfront costs will predictably be tremendous ($20 billion and change), the plan calls for foreign investment to bridge the gap. In addition, the Council hopes that the changes to infrastructure will lead to solar-generated energy reaching price parity with fossil fuels in about a decade, making the plan cost effective sometime after that.
In the article linked above, V. Subramanian, former secretary of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and CEO of the Indian Wind Energy Association, notes that the success of the plan will depend not on massive government or international funding, but on changes to national and state energy laws and "the appropriate institutional structures to facilitate implementation at the state level".
Though India is far more ambitious in its solar plans that the US is right now, it seems as if the two nations at least have one thing in common...legal regimes that are not currently disposed toward solar innovation. This is just a guess, but it would not be surprising to see these barriers eliminated in India before they are taken down in the US. Though unfortunate, this just may be one more area where the US will have to follow the leader on solar development.
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