Japanese business magnate Masayoshi Son on Wednesday offered to provide free power to International Solar Alliance (ISA) nations, who sign mutual power purchase agreements, after 25 years.
"Today I make a special offer here... As long as you have the land and sunshine, as long as you have the eyes and ears listening to me, I will give you free power," said Son, addressing a gathering of the International Solar Alliance, at the second RE Invest held in Greater Noida.
Son's commitment comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi set the tone of the ISA meet of its first general assembly, by proclaiming, "one world, one sun, one grid".
Son's SoftBank-owned SB Energy already has its presence in India. The company has already committed investment of $20 billion and aims to set up 20 GW of solar projects in the country, Raman Nanda, CEO of SB Energy said.
Claiming that there is no dearth of either money or technology, Son said, his dream was to provide free power harnessing the sun. A technological feat that his nation has recently achieved in the Pacific region.
He said that life of a solar power project is 80 years. "Capacity of project lowers by 15 per cent in the first five years. But after that, generation is maintained at 85 per cent of the project capacity for its lifetime," said Son.
His SB Energy has Foxconn and Bharti Enterprise as partners to set up the 20 GW project. The company has so far bagged contracts to set up 1200 MW of solar generation capacity.
