1. China's growth was not just helped by govt policies. One of the main reasons as to why China became world's shop floor ( which necessitated ramping up in power production) was significant positive factors within eg: China produces 50%, 70%, 80 % and 80 % of global Nickel, Cobalt, Tungston and Molybdenum respectively ! These are the metals which feeds high technology- from aircraft to oil and gas to thermal power ( nickel costs 50 times that of steel!)
2. Besides, the climate is also conducive for power generation in China.....

Solar pv power is the only source of green energy and to remain till the day of judgment or till the end of the WORLD as all segments of religious way of life!
why India so slow with all tropical climate conditions more suitable for solar than any other countries but even coldest country like Switzerland /other countries hurrying in switching over solar an ultimate energy source !
India estimates 1,00,000 MW by 2020 and 2030 2 lakhs MW with a duration of 6 and 16 years respectively. one side domestic content in enjoying additional advantages from GOVT and other installations.

Electricity is the purest form of energy and can be used as an input to be converted into a varied input - hot, cold, very hot, motion etc. The technology to converting this is also not so expensive doe to advancements and commoditization. So the west is concentrating on solar PV.
India's case is different. Let us not build cooled/temperature glass buildings in a tropical country just coz some rich markets in higher latitudes do it. In other words it may prove to be very costly to build big solar PV and supply to a leaky grid with lots of subsidized consumer sections.

This identifies the wrong path followed by the India. Advice is to learn from successful stories from around the world and adopt it to suit our conditions. For example Germany was successful in solar sector following FIT. Now they tries to reduce FIT. Japan, though a front runner in solar capacity till 2004, is at present behind several nations. Now Japan adopted FIT that is suitable to their vision (To overtake Germany) and decided highest FIT. Solar capacity added in one year is about 4000 MW.

For city dwellers there should be opportunity to put up solar on rural rooftops with net metering of the energy. Some energy will be consumed by the property owner for which he can be charged by grid at their rates and city slicker will get credits for the same. It is like wheeling.
That way rural guys get power, city slicker gets hedge against inflation, grid gets lower blackouts, can claim to have catered to the rural poor and butter from both sides.

What is more important that every taluka where 1.5 MU/MW/Year of Solar PV energy can be generated (pls note that we have 4500 such talukas), we can have 15 MW solar PV plant (a 62.5 GW project opportunity through new generation entrepreneurs on DEG model with low cost debt funding!!) with 100 Acres dry land / Taluka (which is easily possible ) and increase irrigation in that dry land through CSR measures to divert very few kWH from the solar pv plant to pump the ground water and store in open Ponds near by the project area, which will act as rain water harvesting. Thus, Energy security and Food security apart from GREAT SAVINGS ON Transmission and Distribution costs as one can easily up load / evacuate the power by using the existing substations or we can spend very little amount to strengthen these existing substation, thus, we can create large number of local entrepreneurs and large number of local jobs with such good Decentralised Energy Generation (DEG).

As the Operation and Maintenance agency for Solar PV power generation will have its own security agency, it may be a good scheme to protect the CANAL BREACH at distributor (few miscreants may break the wall in the nights or few may use pipes to siphon the water from canal to their fields in the night through their DG sets, therefore, we also foresee this kind of Solar PV project can bring down the costs of Canal Maintenance. If the PV Plant Security (which is a cost to Govt too) is insufficient as it runs in to Kilo meters, then, breach or such mishaps may recur and it may prove additional expense to the Government.

One point I made was that improvements in solar based power generation technology will reduce the cost of solar generated power to definitely lower than (as a rough guess about half the price of) coal in less than ten/10 years.

As the marginal cost advantage of solar over coal (or carbon generally) generated power increases, the "problem" of whether and how solar generated power will replace (in whole and in part) coal (or other carbon) generated power will be driven by business necessity and profit (the market).

1. Grant basic right status to every citizen to use his own source of power subject to pollution laws and safety of the person and his neighbor/locality and population.
2. Shoot down any attempt by Grids to violate the above.
3. Penalize those grids that do not buy excess electricity produce by rooftops. Price to be decided by reverse auction.
4. Give as much importance to energy efficiency as energy production.
5. Do an honest financial and technical analysis of cost of solar installation Vs cost of setting up a Grid.

Off grid or Mini Grid with 1 to 2 MW in the area where the Grid is not existing (around 100,000 villages, which are called as hamlets, out of a total 650,000 villages in INDIA), shall be electrified with local grid like the poles what we have in cities with safety measures, so that in future, if a grid line passes, then, it can be hooked up..... Thus, Rs.90,000 Crore, KEROSENE SUBSIDY given out yearly by the Centre can be put to best use with these 1MW or 2 MW with MINI GRID (off grid) solutions to help the tribal people etc.... Even if this power is given free to these deprived people, it saves the Kerosene subsidy and their lungs from burning kerosene in the night... (any ways many Crore pati Farmers in Punjab are getting free power, so why not these poor people of India??)...... what is most important is the COST TO THE COMMON MAN and the most important Common Sense approach with rural needs.... Solar PV is a best fit for rural development initiatives ....as explained above.

Off grid, independent generation of electricity with solar panels may sound like a good idea but it goes against the interests of thousands of technical and bureaucratic personnel working for those electricity boards, The capital invested in power houses and the distribution infrastructure existing in the states as well as the billing and collection bureaucracy will be set against any such move. Only win-win scenario is to demonstrate a scheme that adds to the revenue generated for the central electricity authority at the same time the policy should provide incentives to the home owner to generate his own electricity. The board should consider any additional electricity generated by the private owner as additional revenue stream for the board and the private owner.

Policy shall add the Solar Irrigation Pumping System with good amount of subsidy in the form of INCOME TAX HOLIDAY to be adjusted in 4 to 6 years of their balance sheet i.e (90% of the pumping system with pumps) INCOME TAX HOLIDAY (reverse of Accelerated Depreciation, which is only meant for Tax evading entities) for Corporate sectors or business houses or Societies or Agencies or Financial Institutions, NGOs etc, who wish to provide (or Donate) such systems free to the poor and Marginal Farmers. This can be part of Corporate Social Responsibility as they are going to invest 10% minimum, hence, large scope of such pumping solutions with Geology department permission to retain the ground water table.

Since small roof top PV are inefficient, in order to avoid Capital subsidy sucking tool, i propose to allow all the small residential Solar PV promoters to be given a minimum of 65% of the project value to be in the form of INCOME TAX HOLIDAY, to be adjusted in the entire household income, so that the Inverter (off grid) can be charged or in the day the power can be used, if there is no grid electricity. This will eliminate the Net metering hazards for small systems and also the Kerala SCAM or Central Government subsidy sucking mechanisms.