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New UserSeeing the light: How India is embracing solar power
09 May 2017
Rameshwarlal Choudhary, a 45-year old farmer, and his wife Dakha, 40, live with their two children in a small shack near the village of Solawata in India's Rajasthan.
Their home has thatched walls, a tin roof, and one side is completely open to the elements.
Until six months ago, they were part of the 44% of India's rural households who lack electricity.
Now, through a 40-watt solar panel perching on a tree branch outside the hut, they have enough power for three lights: one inside the house, one in the fields, and one on a tree above the roof.
"With the extra light we can study until 10 pm," says their daughter Pooja, a 17-year-old student.
And her parents can farm and milk their cows beyond sunset - around 5pm - for the first time.
"The light also helps keep snakes, rodents, and scorpions at bay," says Ramjilal, their 20-year-old son who is also a student.
This one small example is emblematic of how India is going solar in a very big way.
In November, the country unveiled the world's largest-ever solar farm at Kamuthi, in Tamil Nadu.
It stretches across 2,500 acres, and its 2.5 million solar modules are cleaned each day by a team of robots, themselves solar-powered.
While countries like Britain and Germany have seen new solar installations slow after the withdrawal of government subsidies, India and China are ramping up their installations.
India quadrupled its capacity in the last three years to 12GW (gigawatts) - 1GW can power about 725,000 homes.
This will almost double again this year, with India adding 10GW in 2017; another 20GW is in the pipeline.
China is installing solar panels at a similar clip; its capacity leapt to 77GW last year, up from 43GW.
Source: BBC.com