NEW DELHI: Dispelling doubts on the quality of Chinese solar equipment, Power Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday said that India is looking at affordable power and not the country of its origin. India imported solar and photovoltaic cells worth $826 million from China during April-September 2016.
“We are looking at ensuring that power cost remains affordable in India and within that, as long as quality is maintained in a globally integrated world, we don’t see where the equipment comes from,” Goyal told reporters on the sidelines of the 7th India-Japan Energy Forum.
India has also sought Japan’s expertise in providing stable and adequate power across the country, as well as for developing battery-powered cars as part of its sales target of 6-7 million units.
Speaking on the scope of India-Japan cooperation, Goyal said that the forum is a platform to engage with the island nation for mutual benefit in energy sector by working towards bringing Japanese expertise in cutting edge engineering and technology to India. They should cooperate on long term contracts which would stabilise the factor for Renewable Energy Trust that India is currently putting.
“Grid integration, stability and electrical mobility are major priorities for the government,” the minister added. He noted that India’s power demand is likely to expand four-fold in the next 15 years to become one of the largest energy markets globally. Goyal reiterated India’s target of adding 100 GW of solar power generation capacity by 2020.