Suntech has announced a deal that will see the company supply 100MW of solar panels for projects in India.
The framework supply agreement with utility scale solar provider Sunborne Energy will initially see 10 megawatts of 280 watt Suntech solar panels being shipped for a project in Gujarat, India.
Suntech Chairman and CEO, Dr. Zhengrong Shi commented that a third of people in India do not have reliable access to electricity and solar energy has the potential to help address the situation.
Under India’s Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM), the nation has a goal of 1,000 megawatts of new solar power capacity to be finalised by 2013, 20,000MW by 2022 and a staggering 200,000 MW by 2050. While the National Solar Mission has a target of grid-parity by 2030, Sunborne Energy has set a grid-parity goal of 2017. Grid parity in relation to solar power refers to making the solar electricity generation as cheap as traditional energy sources, such as coal.
India has historically been a “power deficit” nation and its hunger for energy is growing; particularly with planned GDP growth rates of 8-10%. India is heavily dependent on fossil fuel based electricity generation, which currently supplies just over two thirds of power generated within its borders.
Like Australia, India has a bounty of solar resources. India’s average annual solar insolation (the measure of solar radiation energy received in an area in a given time) is one of the best in the world; up to 2000 sun hours per year in some locations. According to information on Sunborne Energy’s web site, if just 5% of India’s Thar Desert was utilised for solar power generation, it could meet all of India’s electricity needs.
SunBorne is also developing utility scale solar farms Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh, with projects in other states in the pipeline. The company aims to roll out 20 percent of the Solar Mission target in the next ten years.
Suntech Power Holdings is the world’s largest solar panel manufacturer and shipped over 15,000,000 modules to date.
