Solar Power Starting to Really Take Shape in India: Acme Group Plans 240 MW of Solar Thermal Plants

Acme Group has announced that it's on track to get the first half of it's first 10 MW solar thermal power plant online at the beginning of 2010, Cleantech reports. The plant uses the same technology as in eSolar's newly commissioned plant in California. But that's not the half of it, Acme has active plans for a further 230 MW, and thinks it can really bring the cost down:

Acme says the initial plant will cost about $3.14 million per megawatt, but can reduce costs to $1.68 million per megawatt as more projects get built. That's partly because of economies of scale and lower cost for materials in India, but more because of the nation's new National Solar Mission, which establishes new feed-in tariffs and financing possibilities.
All this could mean, according to Acme's founder Manoj Kumar Upadhyay, that solar thermal could drop in price to 12¢ per kilowatt-hour by 2015.
In addition to this 10 MW plant, located in Rajasthan, Acme is also building a 5 MW plant in Maharashtra, a 110 MW plant in Gujarat, and a 100 MW plant in Madhya Pradesh. What's more, Acme has exclusive license for up to 1,000 MW of plants using this technology.