INDIA COULD HAVE 60 SOLAR CITIES IN 2020

60 solar powered Indian cities by 2020: US energy official
8 September 2009 (Times of India)

"Sixty Indian cities will be solar powered by 2020 if India is able to generate 20,000 MW of solar energy by then, said Mark Ginberg, [senior executive advisor to the assistant secretary of the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy] with the US Department of Energy…

"The US Department of Energy and the All India Institute of Local Self Government (AIILSG) launched a joint training programme on 'Energy efficient and green cities' in Goa, which will train Indian experts, universities, local self governments and civic bodies on getting cities to move to solar powered energy…"

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"According to an initial list of [20] partnered Indo-US cities, Ahmedabad has been tied up with Atlanta and Columbus; Bangalore with San Francisco; Chennai with Denver, Delhi with Chicago, Mumbai with Los Angeles, Surat with Philadelphia and Vadodara (Baroda) with Edison, New Jersey, which has a large Gujarati community…"

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"…[Indian] schools [will] study energy-smart schools in the US and implement the [programs]…Mumbai port could…[learn from] how LA port has adopted energy smart measures…[but] the US government [will not] be funding such projects in India…[although] the US government has realised the importance of renewable energy in the future and has pumped billions of dollars into such programmes in America…

"…Union minister of state for power Bharatsinh Solanki…said that [India] could make use of its open fields and rooftops of houses to harness solar energy and water harvesting…[G]overnor S S Sidhu said that of the 10 largest cities in the world, eight will be in developing countries…[M]ayors and civic officials from 30 Indian cities and abroad [participated]…"