| | March, 20228E conomy and the environment have to go hand in hand for sustainable growth. We have paid the price for economic growth at the cost of the environment, resulting in irreversible damages. Global warming and escalating pollution levels have endangered our future. Climate change and natural calamities are becoming new normal! This is time to act before it escalates and impacts our future further. Electricity is a basic need for economic growth, but unfortunately it directly impacts the envi-ronment. Traditional sources like fossil fuel are not com-mercially and environmentally feasible. In addition, fossil fuel is diminishing at an alarming rate. The good news is, renewable energy is a feasible alternative. Solar energy is the answer to these challenges and the world can be much greener without sacrificing economic growth. India is blessed with abundant solar radiation. As per Ministry of New and Renewable energy (MNRE), about 5000 trillion kWh energy is incident on the land area per year with most of the regions receiving four to seven kWh/m2/day solar energy. According to the National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE), India's current solar potential is about 748 GW (assuming three percent of the wasteland area that can be covered with solar panels). This potential is yet to be harnessed to its fullest. Solar photovoltaic (PV) has huge scalability in India, and can be effectively expand-ed. Solar energy being abundant, is one of the most secure energy sources and ensures energy security. Hypothetical-ly, out of the total solar energy incident in India, even if a small fraction of it is captured effectively, we can meet the country's entire power requirement.To achieve India's renewable energy potential, the Gov-ernment of India (GOI) has already set a target of 175 Giga-watt (GW) of renewable energy by 2022 and out of which 100 GW is to be achieved by solar power. Out of this 100 GW, 35.13 GW has already been achieved. Furthermore, the government has an ambitious target of achieving 450 GW of renewable energy by 2030. With this kind of an-nouncements, it is clear that the policy structure in India is towards adopting renewable energy and obtaining max-imum benefit out of it.Furthermore, the Government of India has launched various schemes to encourage power generation across Utility, Industrial, Commercial and Residential sectors. Open access policies for captive as well as utility scale So-ENVIRONMENT SUSTAINABILITY & HARNESSING THE POTENTIAL OF SOLAR POWER IN INDIATHOUGHT CENTRALBy Gautam Das, Co-Founder & CEO, Oorjan Cleantech Gautam Das, Co-Founder & CEO
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