High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Renewable Energy in India is a sector that is still undeveloped. India was probably the first country in the world to set up a separate ministry of non conventional energy resources in early 1980s. However the results have been very mixed and in recent years it has lagged far behind other developed nations in using renewable energy (RE). RE contribution to energy sector is less than 1% of India's total energy needs. Renewable energy in India comes under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. India is both densely populated and has high solar insolation, providing an ideal combination for solar power in India. Much of the country does not have an electrical grid, so one of the first applications of solar power has been for water pumping, to begin replacing India's four to five million diesel powered water pumps, each consuming about 3.5 kilowatts, and off-grid lighting. Some large projects have been proposed, and a 35,000 km² area of the Thar Desert has been set aside for solar power projects, sufficient to generate 700 to 2,100 gigawatts.