New Delhi, July 30 - India's highly ambitious plan to make the country the global leader in solar energy is ready and awaits the nod of a council headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The Prime Minister's Council on Climate Change will meet Monday to approve the programme that will add 20,000 MW of generation capacity by 2020 and make it as cheap as electricity from conventional sources.

It will need from the government Rs.85,000-105,000 crore (Rs.850-1,050 billion/$17.6-21.7 billion) over a 30-year period, a senior official told IANS.

The outlay will start with Rs.5,000-6,000 crore in the current Five Year Plan (ending 2012) and Rs.12,000-15,000 crore in 2013-2017. It proposes to raise this by taxing fossil fuels, mainly coal.

The draft plan reads: 'The objectives of the National Solar Mission are to establish India as a global leader in solar energy through:

* 20,000 MW of installed solar generation capacity by 2020 and 100,000 MW by 2030; 200,000 MW by 2050

* Solar power cost reduction to achieve grid tariff parity by 2020

* Achieve parity with coal-based thermal power generation by 2030

* 4-5 GW of installed solar manufacturing capacity by 2017.'

A copy of the draft plan is with IANS.

Being renewable and easily available all over India, solar power improves India's environment and energy security at the same time, the draft points out.

The problem so far has been to produce this power as cheaply as from coal or hydel sources. This is the main obstacle to be tackled, says the document, by reducing the cost of solar power generation to Rs.4-5 per KWH by 2017-20.

The plan envisions the development of solar energy in India in three phases.

'The objective in Phase I (2009-12) will be to achieve rapid scale up to drive down costs, to spur domestic manufacturing and to validate the technological and economic viability of different solar applications.