11 January,2010 01:01 PM IST | | Agencies
India's ambitious solar energy mission, the centrepiece of its activities to combat climate change, will aim to generate 20,000 MW of solar power by 2022, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced here Monday.
Launching Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission "Solar India", the prime minister said: "The target of 20,000 MW of solar generating capacity by the end of the 13th Five Year Plan (2018-2022) is no doubt an ambitious target. But I do sincerely believe that the target is doable and that we should work single-mindedly to achieve it as a priority national endeavour."
"Eventually, if the ambitious roll out of the Mission is to become a reality, we will have to create many Solar Valleys on the lines of the Silicon Valleys that are spurring our IT industry across the four corners of the country," Singh told the gathering which included Union Ministers Sharad Pawar, Farooq Abdullah and Jairam Ramesh.
"I am convinced that solar energy can be the next scientific and industrial frontier in India after Atomic Energy, Space and IT", he said.
