[forrestthewoods]

As best I can tell India's government is currently spending billions of dollars on solar. Maybe it will some day not be subsidy based. But as best I can tell it currently is.

In fact the government appears to be spending one hundred billion dollars on solar in the next six years. By 2022.

Furthermore, "The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy provides 70 percent subsidy on the installation cost of a solar photovoltaic power plant in North-East states and 30 percentage subsidy on other regions." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_India

I'm all for renewable energy. Solar is great. At this point I don't see how the headline isn't clickbait bullshit.

[tim333]

The headline's accurate in that India energy minister said "solar is now cheaper than coal." Doesn't necessarily mean solar is actually cheaper than coal.

[TheLogothete]

He said that? Can you please provide the quote?

[tim333]

Ok - it seems he tweeted rather than said it:

>“Through transparent auctions with a ready provision of land, transmission and the like, solar tariffs have come down below thermal power cost,” Goyal said in a tweet.

http://cleantechnica.com/2016/01/22/solar-power-now-cheaper-...

[Osiris30]

There are very little subsidies for Wind and Solar in India. MNRCE subsidies are for specific projects. The vast majority are tenders or auctions. Developers bid a tarrif whatever they feel their Return on Assets can bear.

See here for more https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11520789

[the_why_of_y]

They have to subsidize solar a bit so it can compete with the huge subsidies for carbon based fuels.

http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/cat/longres.aspx?sk=42940.0

[TheLogothete]

Why is this guy getting downvoted?

There are multiple people saying "sounds too good to be true, but it isn't. Solar is great because I said so!". This guy provides evidence to support that it is not true and gets downvoted? Wut?

For the umptieth time HN hears only what it wants to hear.

[forgetsusername]

Indeed. The HN hive mind is strong. Post oatmeal commentary about favorite subjects and receive up votes.