Despite the poor infrastructure and a very high poverty rate all over the country, India plans to produce over 25% energy from solar power by 2030.
Should India produce 20 times more energy from solar resources as planned, it will become the largest solar powerhouse in the world. India is one of the 120 countries that form the International Solar Alliance. Their main goal is to expand and improve the use of solar power technology.
Most of the year, India experiences sunny days, meaning there is plenty of solar energy available. Receiving government support, there are more and more companies interested in entering India's solar market. The government, specifically the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, is trying to help by offering "a 30 to 40% subsidy for the cost of solar lanterns, home lights and small systems, according to the government official." The official also stated that approximately 20 million solar lamps are expected by 2022.
The founder of Sun Bazaar Samarth Wadhwa stated for the press that the government is heavily promoting solar energy, planning to make it available in every Indian household; the people are getting more and more familiar with the new concept and are accepting it, therefore, he believes the time to make the shift from coal to solar energy is just right.
Shifting to solar energy would benefit people from all over India, no matter their social class. It would in fact be very welcome amongst the poor communities, as the new (at the moment quite poor) infrastrucutre and cheaper electricty supply would only benefit from it. There are a couple of problems in setting up the required infrastructure and delivering products - according to Wadhwa, "there are a lot of cheap and low-quality products coming in from China", which undermine government's efforts and and "erodes consumer confidence in solar, because these systems are known to fail."