In a bid to accelerate India’s efforts to meet its emission reduction targets and combat climate change, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called for the creation of “solar valleys” across the country and asked private investors to view the National Solar Mission as a business opportunity.

"If the ambitious rollout of the mission is to become a reality, we will have to create many solar valleys, on the lines of silicon valleys, which are spurring our information technology (IT) industry across the four corners of the country," Singh said.

National Solar Mission is one of the eight missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change and aims at setting up over 20,000-Mw solar power generation capacity in three stages by 2022, the end of the 13th Five-year Plan.

He also expressed hope that the solar mission, when achieved, would improve the country's energy prospects and contribute to efforts aimed at combating the climate change threat. "This mission is one of the major priorities of our government in its second term," he said.

Noting India's scientific and technological capabilities, Singh said: "I am convinced that solar energy can be the next scientific and industrial frontier in India after atomic energy, space and IT."

While India's solar power generation potential, with 300 clear sunny days every year, is one of the highest in the world, its capacity to generate solar power stands at as low as 3 Mw at present, in spite of an overall 150,000 Mw of installed power generation capacity. This is primarily owing to high cost -- over Rs 12 crore per Mw -- of setting up solar power plants, in contrast to the Rs 5-6 crore per Mw cost of setting up thermal power capacity.

"We aim to bring down the cost as quickly as possible," said Farooq Abdullah. The renewable energy ministry's plan is to announce a long-term policy to purchase power and support research and development to reduce material consumption.