INDIA WANTS PAID-FOR SUN

India demands West pay for bold solar energy plans; The plan is to generate 20 gigawatts by 2020 - Shift in government policy boosted wind energy production
Maseeh Rahman, August 6, 2009 (The Hindu)

"India has decided to push ahead with an ambitious plan to generate clean electricity through the power of the sun - and, after a meeting chaired by the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, it wants rich nations to pay the bill.

"Although the country has virtually no solar power today, the plan is to generate 20 gigawatts (GW) from sunlight by 2020. According to the International Energy Agency, global solar capacity is predicted to be 27GW by then — meaning that India expects to be producing 75 per cent of this within 10 years…"

India is making ambitious plans...(click to enlarge)

"About 400 million Indians have no electricity at all, and harnessing the country’s abundant solar power could help spark growth…end the power cuts that plague the nation…[and] assuage international criticism that India [heavily reliant on coal] is not doing enough to control its carbon emissions…

"The idea provoked intense and prolonged discussions at a meeting of the national climate change council in New Delhi…Initial plans had anticipated that a government subsidy of about $20bn, and falling production costs, would enable a long-term 2040 target of 200GW of solar power…[but] experts pointed out that a large government subsidy would contradict the Indian government’s stated position in the global warming treaty negotiations…India, along with China and others, has demanded that the costs of clean technologies should be borne by developed nations, who have grown rich through their heavy use of fossil fuels."

...but they decided somebody else needs to pay for their ambitious plans. (click to enlarge)

"Under the revised plan, India’s solar mission will seek to achieve its targets by demanding technological and financial support from the developed nations…The move suggests that New Delhi could use its solar energy plan as a bargaining chip at the forthcoming climate change summit in Copenhagen.

"If rich nations do fund the solar plan, the aim of both sides — economic growth for developing countries but with low-carbon emissions — will have been met…[but] the plan’s optimistic cost projections were debunked…leaving it unclear how much money the 2020 target would need…"