Solar energy in India.

India’s government has set a mammoth new goal to build a solar power capacity of 100 GW in an energy-starved-but-hungry country, permitting 100% foreign investment and offering a series of tax breaks for its fledgling solar sector. The audacious new target quintuples the previous goal of 20 GW and is about 30 times the country’s installed capacity (less than 3.7 GW). The flurry of investors is making solar energy seem like the new Gold Rush.

“If the government removes bottlenecks and gets regional administrations to offer incentives, solar could be a long-term play for investors,” said Amol Kotwal, director, energy practice, at consultancy firm, Frost & Sullivan. “It could turn out to be a Gold Rush.”

Strategic, innovative players could build a very exciting business as the market potential is huge with room for established companies as well as entrepreneurs, said Tobias Engelmeier, director & founder, Bridge To India, a renewable energy consultancy. India has the potential to become the world’s leading solar markets as its location near the equator and low solar park construction costs coupled with plunging costs of solar energy in recent times (now only marginally higher than cost of producing conventional energy) are all aligning with India’s ambitions. “Our estimate is that, in the next 15 years, solar in India could be a 1,000 GW opportunity,” said Engelmeier.

The government’s unprecedented push has already attracted a pack of investors. Japanese telecom multinational SoftBank, India’s biggest wireless telecom provider Bharti Enterprises and Taiwan’s technology manufacturer Foxconn Technology have announced a $20 billion joint venture, SBG Cleantech, to bid for contracts to develop solar energy plants across the country. SunEdison, the Missouri, U.S.-based renewable energy firm said it intends to invest $15 billion by 2022. It also announced that it would put $2 billion into a joint venture with billionaire Gautam Adani’s Adani Group to manufacture photo voltaic modules. China’s Trina Solar has unveiled plans to invest $500 million in a plant to make panels in a joint venture with India’s Welspun Energy.