Cabinet approves setting up of 50 more solar parks

The Union Cabinet has decided to expand its solar parks scheme and will set up 50 more parks of 500 megawatts each by 2020, Power Minister Piyush Goyal told CNBC-TV18's Anshu Sharma.Goyal said 34 solar parks with a capacity of 20,000 MW had been approved in the initial phase of the scheme, and this had now been doubled to 40,000 MW.The parks will be given financial assistance of Rs 20 lakh per megawatt or 30 percent of the total cost of the project, whichever is lower, Goyal said. He added the support had been doubled to Rs 8,000 crore based on the successful bidding for the Rewa solar park where they discovered a price of 2.90 per unit of solar energy.States had lapped up the projects in the first phase and he expected the 50 new parks to be set up much before the three-year deadline given that energy security was getting cheaper by the day. India has set a target to push its renewable capacity to 175 GW by 2020 from current level of 45 GW. To meet this objective, the government will need to invest nearly USD 200 billion, analysts have said.Watch video for more...