As part of India's national commitment to mitigate the impact of climate change, New Delhi has announced plans to generate 100 Giga Watts of solar power.
To achieve the targets of solar power generation, New Delhi plans to invest $1.53 billion to set up a massive power transmission link between Ladakh and the Himalayan region near China.
This, the federal government hopes will attract investment to the newly carved out territory, administered directly by the federal government, in solar and wind energy projects.
The additional power generated in the region will be transferred to other parts of the country, through the transmission link, said Anand Kumar, Secretary in the Federal Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, on Tuesday in New Delhi.
The project, in addition to linking generation projects in Ladakh to the national grid, will deploy nearly 2,500 megawatts (MW) of energy for the Leh and Kargil districts and several key defence establishments in the region.
"Various options are being discussed to facilitate the power transmission project. It can be either a viability grant funding (VGF) project or a public-private partnership (PPP) project or a mix of both," said Anand Kumar.
India is the third-largest consumer of energy after the US and China and has committed to shifting to non-fossil fuels and pioneered setting up the International Solar Alliance along with France. India currently has an installed renewable energy capacity of over 84 Giga Watts.
In its efforts to step up solar power capacity, the budget proposals presented by federal Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament last month unveiled a plan to set up a "large solar power capacity alongside the rail tracts, on lands owned by the railways."
Indian Railways has a network of approximately 77,671 miles (125,000 kilometres), the world's largest, under single management, besides large tracts of land along with its network. This will be used to set up solar power generation capacities.
Earlier in January, a team of international researchers from the University of Delaware, US issued warnings that the global revolution to develop green, low-carbon tech could be at risk unless countries adopt sustainable practices in the mining of critical minerals.
According to the analysts, India, which heads 121 countries under the International Solar Alliance (ISA) must initiate newer and cleaner usage of solar energy to curb its dependence on fossil fuels.
The Indian government has set a target of adding 100 GW of solar energy into the country's energy mix by 2022. Half of the world's ten largest solar parks under construction are presently in India.
Due to the unusual landscape of Ladakh, the project may encounter issues related to logistics.
