In an effort to kickstart its plan to fight global warming, India will soon unveil a solar initiative that will boost solar power output to 20 gigawatts by 2020. This is certainly a lofty goal considering India currently has only about 3 megawatts of installed capacity.

Of course, for those who have been following India's solar rhetoric, this 20 gigawatts was already outlined in a finalized draft of the country's national solar plan that honed in on a 200 gigawatt goal by 2050. An ambitious plan if we've ever seen one.

But considering this is a country where more than 50 percent of its total population does not have access to electricity, it seems as if this extremely ambitious solar energy plan will not find much opposition.

Of course, coal will continue to be the main power generation source for some time (India uses more coal than the U.S. for power generation). But much like here in the United States, the transition to renewable energy is underway.

In accordance with the new initiative, India will also mandate solar for hospitals, hotels and government villages. As well, the government expects to outline a plan that will pay residences for surplus solar power sent back to the grid.

Jeff