Coal India is planning to bet big on solar as the world’s largest coal miner is looking to venture into solar wafer manufacturing and wants to “aggressively” participate in the country’s solar energy auctions, chairman of Coal India Pramod Agarwal told Reuters in an interview.
Pramod Agarwal speaking to the news agency said “Coal as you know, we’re going to lose business in the next two-three decades. Solar will take over coal slowly as a major energy provider in the coming years.”
Agarwal added “We are just exploring the possibilities where we can invest in solar wafer production, nobody is (currently) there in the country.”
Editorial View
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been pushing the country to make it self-reliant (Aatma Nirbhar), however on the solar front it’s still nirbhar (dependent) on the neighboring countries like China, Malaysia etc. The homegrown player still needs to walk miles before it actually tastes the taste of India. Looks like the tug of war between the EPC players/ Developers and manufactures will probably make the renewable energy target a distant dream.