Solar power in India is becoming as cheap as coal

Ecologist : According to a recent report by the accounting firm KPMG, solar power in India is becoming competitive with coal and will probably become even cheaper in the near future. The reasons are many, but the report cites two major applications that lend themselves to solar. One is the pumping of water for irrigation, which accounts for almost 20% of India’s electricity demand and could be done solely during the daytime. The second is household use. According to KPMG, as the electrical grid becomes more expensive and unreliable and battery storage costs decrease, the installation of rooftop and onsite solar panels in individual homes will become increasingly attractive and could provide all the power required by the homeowner. Such houses would have “the potential to change the dynamics of the power utility-customer relationship(s) forever,” according to the report. Although solar power now provides only a small fraction of India’s electricity, “we see solar power becoming a mainstay of our energy landscape in the coming decade.”