Alternate Power sources : India

Lately, there has been discussions on global warming, and effects of consuming petrochemicals on our environment.  Among other things, this has generated a new buzz in the area of alternate sources of engery.

There is talk about wind power, solar power etc. more than ever.  There are practical reasons to look for that and potential upsides as well.

When I look at India, I feel these two sources (others are not discounted) can and should play a major role in fulfilling India's energy needs.  India has ample resources to generate power from both wind and solar sources.

There are already examples around the world, where the heat in desert has been tapped to generate solar energy. Check this on wikipedia, Solar power plants in the Mojave Desert,
a perfect example of how the Indian desert (one of the larger ones around the world) can be tapped to generate some huge amounts of solar power.  Well, I am no solar power scientist, and therefore cant comment on the technicalities and details around that, but I would very much like to know  the reason that comes about and suggests that it cant be done.

On wikipedia, there is a very interesting and encouraging page about situation of solar power in india. Also, checking the website of the Ministry of New and Renewable Resources shows that they have plans to expand in both wind and solar areas. Though this clearly show govt is thinking in this direction, I am sure people like me would love to see this happen in real life and not see these plans replaced by just another set of plans a few years later, without realizing much on the ground.

India also has a long coastline, and I believe this could be utilized for generating some wind power. Geographically speaking, both eastern and western coastline of Indian peninsula has hilly regions,  and I think these could prove to be interesting areas for installation of windmills.

The idea is not really new for India, since India already is developing wind power generation faster than any other country around the planet. As this article on wikipedia mentions, Wind power in India, India is already the fourth largest host of wind power generation installations.

When I tried to check how would it look like for an individual to install a solar panel or a windmill to fulfil his own energy needs, without relying upon the govt to provide for, google did come back with a few pieces of interesting information. 

Here's one page about how a family fought with administration to set up their own windmill, but eventually gained from it in long run.

This page talks briefly about how to set up such a system for alternate source of energy and provides a few links here and there.

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