India's new and renewable energy minister, Farooq Abdullah, has revealed that the government is targeting 1,000MW of solar power by 2013, 500MW of which will be solar photovoltaic and 500MW solar thermal, reports the Hindu.
The first installation will begin in West Bengal, where a demo tidal wave power project of 100MW will be executed, shortly followed by switching 100 telecom towers from diesel to solar power for cooling, Abdullah said.
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The government is aiming for 20,000MW of solar power by 2020 through the Solar Mission. The total potential for renewable energy output is estimated to be 85,000MW.
“Due to huge interest, the government will have to go for reverse bidding in September for the proposed grid connected 500MW photovoltaic solar power projects”, said Indian renewable energy development agency CMD Debashish Majumdar.
“Some 2,000 applications for 5MW each capacity were received and so reverse bidding will be adopted to select 100 projects offering the cheapest rate from the announced rate of Rs.17.90 per unit.”
The tariff for each project would be determined through the reverse bidding process.