The growing emphasis on solar energy utilisation to achieve energy security as well as to combat the menace of climate change and global warming has resulted in the formulation of one of the world’s most ambitious solar missions in India.

China and India face very different challenges for the years to come, mainly because they are at very different levels of economic development.

Solar power is attractive because it is abundant and offers a solution to fossil fuel emissions and global climate change. Earth receives solar energy at the rate of approximately 1,20,000 terawatt. This enormously exceeds both the current annual global energy consumption rate of about 15 TW, and any conceivable requirement in future.

An interdisciplinary approach is necessary to ensure that food, energy and climate are jointly addressed, trade-offs considered, and appropriate safeguards are put in place. These issues will not be addressed through a single initiative.

Initiated in 2005, this study was requested by the government of India to: develop the analytical capacity required to help identify low carbon growth opportunities, up to the end of the 15th Five Year Plan (March 2032), in major sectors of the economy; and facilitate informed decision-making by improving the knowledge base and raising nationa

Increased focus has been placed on the issues of energy access and energy poverty over the last number of years, most notably indicated by the United Nations (UN) declaring 2012 as the “International Year of Sustainable Energy for All”.