Dr Manmohan Singh, Honorable Prime Minister of India, believes that Indian citizens need to be more energy efficient, in order to achieve the growth target of 9% mentioned in the 12th Plan (2012 – 17). According to his viewpoint, Indians are heavily dependent on electricity generated by burning fossil fuels. As such, any improvement in the energy efficiency of thermal power plants across the nation will contribute towards bringing down the energy intensity of the GDP of India. In order to make that happen, he commented, Indians need to use “super critical and ultra-super critical technologies for power generation”.

According to Singh, Indians also need to rely more on public transport to get around than take their own cars everywhere. Transfer of freight should also be carried out using rail, rather than road, which would help in optimizing the usage of fuel to a great extent. Besides, using latest, cutting edge technologies like Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle in power plants fueled by gas should be encouraged, which can help in improving energy efficiency of the plants. Singh stated these facts at a recent program, organized by the Ministry of Power on the occasion of National Energy Conservation Day.

The Prime Minister was all praise for the National Solar Mission, which was started with the target of generating 20,000 megawatts of electricity annually from solar energy, by the year 2020. He stated that success in achieving this target would help the nation cut down on usage of fossil fuel by as many as 23 million tons of oil equivalent.

What the Prime Minister said should be of great interest to photovoltaic solar module manufacturers in India. The National Solar Mission has indeed spiked interest among the general population of the nation. More and more people are now interested in using solar modules to generate electricity in their own homes. As prices of solar energy equipment keep getting reduced, more and more people are likely to invest in solar PV modules, making the industry flourish all over the country.

Let us hope that we are able to achieve the target of the National Solar Mission. It would go a long way in solving the greatly increased demand for energy that is likely to hit the nation in just a few years from now. Besides, can't we all benefit from having cleaner air to breathe?