India, JNNSM Solar Mission, USA and its selfish ideals

JNNSM or Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission was launched in 2010 by the then PM of India, Dr.Manmohan Singh to deploy 20,000 MW (yep...that many zeroes!) of grid connected solar powerby 2022. This target was revised by the NDA government in 2015 to become 100,000 MW of solar power. All the details are given here. To put things in perspective, in 2014, the entire world produced 177 GW (177,000 MW) of solar power. This is the installed capacity of solar panels across the world.

 

Given in the table below is the annual solar power production in the top 5 countries in the world as in 2014.

Data for 2014
Country	Production in GW
Germany	38.2
China	28.2
Japan	23.3
Italy	18.5
USA	18.3

  

Compared to these, India had an installed capacity of 5 GW in December, 2015. (I would love to take a dig at the UPA govt who did practically nothing to work on the grand plan except giving it a name of Gandhi parivar but that is not the intention at present). 

Government of Rajasthan has set aside 35,000 sqkm of land in the Thar Desert. This itself, if completely utilized, can generate 700 to 2100 GW of power. (that means at least 18 times the power generated by Germany at present!)

What I am doing here is just putting numbers to show the kind of capacity that we are speaking about. India can not only become the leader in this field if JNNSM is properly implemented which Modi government has already taken up seriously but we can actually change the rules of the game.

No wonder, solar cell manufacturers the world over started salivating.....but WAIT! What about the stupid clause about domestic production of critical components? Now that surely is against the rules...right? What about equality between a developed country and a developing economy which is trying to stay green? What about the many jobs that will be snatched from the jaws of the poor developed nation if all these billion dollar worth of solar panels were made cheaper?

The US President wants to double exports in the next few years. The only way that can be achieved is by reducing local manufacturing in some major economies. And when you have things like WTO in your pocket, it becomes so much more easier.

What should India do? Obviously challenge the decision. But IMHO, we should simply show the middle finger and move on. In another 2-3 years, with proper focus, we might be exporting panels to the US given the cost advantages that we get not only because of huge local demand, cheaper labor but obviously due to more modern plants. 

Lets do an America on the Americans ;-)