It was interesting for me to read an article, written in Jan 2012, trying to figure out which of the two – solar or wind – will be the hero of 2012 for India?
Of course, wind was pretty much the only renewable energy source worth writing home about until 2 years back (unless you counted a couple of thousands of MW each of biomass and small hydro), but since the National Solar Mission, solar (especially Solar PV) has caught everyone’s imagination.
Solar PV is still small compared to wind (1 GW of solar PV grid connected installed capacity vs about 18 GW for wind), but many consider solar to have a much higher potential medium and long term.
However, on the question of which would win in 2012, it is not easy to answer. Each industry is going through troubles of its own – some to do with fundamental economics, others to do with regulations, third to do with the global downturn
Anyway, read this article written six months back to see how much of what the author had predicted has come true!
