The Hindu Business Line : Govt approves setting up of solar mission

The Government has approved the creation of a national solar mission, on the lines of the Atomic Commission. This was done on the recommendations of the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council, Dr V. Krishnamurthy, Chairman of the council, said on Monday.

Delivering the keynote address at the Solar PV Conclave 2008, organised here by the India Semiconductor Association, Dr Krishnamurthy said that rules for the functioning of the solar mission were in the process of being framed.

“We have recommended that the mission should be headed by a person of outstanding calibre and should report directly to the Prime Minister,” he told journalists on the sidelines of the conference.

Asked for a comment on the advantages of a ‘mission’, he said that a programme on a ‘mission mode’ would receive high priority and procedures and formalities would be passed through faster.

Highest potential

Dr Krishnamurthy said that apart from the fact that India has the highest potential in the world to harness sun power (“the ‘irradiance factor’ for India is the highest in the world”), he said that the country had also the potential to be the least cost producer and assembler of solar cells — thanks to the abundant availability of silicon (sand).

Both in his address and the interaction with journalists, Dr Krishnamurthy noted that the Indian R&D effort in this area was very inadequate.

He wanted the industry to focus more on R&D in areas such as raising the percentage of solar energy falling on the panels into electricity and bringing down the cost of production of raw materials.

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