India May Need $10 Billion to Install 10 Gigawatts of Solar Thermal Power

India may need as much as $10 billion in investments to install 10 gigawatts of solar thermal power over the next 12 years, the head of an industry group said.

“Raising funds will be a challenge,” Anil Kumar Lakhina, chairman of the Forum for the Advancement of Solar Thermal, said at a conference in New Delhi today.

While some funds will need to be raised overseas for equipment and components, India’s power industry overall has attracted foreign direct investment of $5 billion in the past 10 years, Lakhina said.

Solar thermal plants use the sun’s energy to make steam, which is then used to generate power.

India plans to install 20 gigawatts of solar capacity by 2022 in three phases. The country added 8 megawatts of solar power capacity that is fed to the grid as of Jan. 1, compared with a target of 50 megawatts for the five years ending March 2011, according to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

To contact the reporter on this story: Natalie Obiko Pearson in Mumbai at npearson7@bloomberg.net.

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