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City trio power Guj solar park

Starting from scratch and braving extreme weather conditions,they got the project up and running in 9 months

Manasi Paresh Kumar manasi.pk@timesgroup.com

On April 18,Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate Asias first and the worlds largest solar park at Charanka village in Patan district of the state.The project will generate 600 MW of power,lead to a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions to the tune of eight million tonnes,and save 900,000 tonnes of natural gas annually.
And while the green project will like him or not add to Modis credentials as a super CEO,Bangalore too can take a large share of the credit.It was three city boys EI Technologies engineers N Ranganath,Sathish Joseph and Suchindra Dik**** who were responsible for conceiving and implementing the Rs 9,000-crore project.
Speaking to BANGALORE MIRROR,the trio said it was a life-changing experience for them.When Gujarat Power Corporation Limited (GPCL) came up with the idea of a solar park in the middle of barren land sans any connectivity,it was a huge challenge.The idea was that the government would develop the park with the basic infrastructure sites,roads,power evacuation facilities,grids,etc. and the sites would then be developed by private investors.The solar power produced would in turn be purchased by GPCL.
EI Technologies was awarded the task of developing the park.Imagine the challenge of building a project spread over 5,400 acres of barren land.We won the contract for consultancy and implementation,and in less than nine months the project is up and running.We have battled extreme weather conditions,from scorching 48 degrees heat to torrential floods.But it was all very exciting, said Ranganath,a geo-technology engineer.
When we reached the site,all we saw was barren shrubland.It was terrain that would drive away even a local.Besides,the earmarked land had not been completely acquired.But such problems did not faze us,as our brief was to do our job and not worry about paperwork, said Suchindra,a telecom expert.
Apart from being the lead consultant for the solar park,the company also has a power plant in the park generating one MW.When we started,we knew next to nothing about the technology.But given the threat of global warming,we knew we had to work in the direction of alternative energy, said Sathish,an electronics engineer.
So can the Gujarat solar park be replicated in Karnataka Why not, said Ranganath.Gulbarga and Raichur have very high solar radiation levels.But we need political will and bureaucratic cooperation.It will also save the state exchequer a lot of money, he said.(The state needs around 200 million units of power everyday,with Bangalore alone requiring 35-40 million units.Yet only 150 million units is made available,and the state government had to spend almost Rs 7,000 crore in the last financial year for power purchases.)
The Gujarat government spent just Rs 540 crore on the project while the remainder has been invested by private players.The only assurance you need to give private players is that you will buy their power.
If a state,where even the remotest of villages has 24-hour power,can think of building such a project,why cant our state,which is facing a power crisis,do it Implementation and technology are no problem, chorused the three.

The solar park at Charanka village in Gujarat will lead to a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions to the tune of eight million tonnes and save 900,000 tonnes of natural gas annually

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Chennai firm makes solar fans, lamps

PTI | Aug 3, 2002, 10.01PM IST

CHENNAI: Energy starved Indian consumers can now go in for a solar powered lamp and table top fan, together priced at Rs 3000, both working on a single 15 years warranty solar module brought out by a Chennai firm.
The solar powered lamp "Aiswayra", with a nine hours reserve capacity from a maintainace free battery and the fan, with a six hours continuous functional capacity, were unveiled here on Saturday by Solakar enterprises, engaged in the production of cost-effective solar products for the last 18 years.
Managing director K E Raghunathan, who is also a member of the advisory committee of the Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Sources, said Solakar would be coming out with another range of solar products like battery chargers, car fans, toys, and do-it-yourself kits by the end of this year.
"We have come out this affordable new product combination, mainly to popularise the usage of solar devices among the common public, especially in the backdrop of the centre withdrawing the subsidy for solar lanterns of late on account of misuse of the conecessions", he said.
The company has already sold about 7,000 units, including 2000 units exported after the product combination had undergone a "soft launch" three months ago.
He said the company planned to sell at least one lakh units during the current fiscal.

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Bosch tries out solar power in plants

Nandini Sen Gupta TNN

Chennai: With severe power shortage hitting industrial productivity,solar power is fast turning into a viable alternative to diesel for captive power.German engineering and automotive major Bosch,which is investing heavily in solar power globally,is focusing on commercial and industrial offgrid rooftop space in India,along with turnkey solutions and pilot projects.
C M Venugopalan,sales director,solar energy division,Bosch,said: With solar photovoltaic solutions achieving cost parity with diesel in the longer term,it now makes the technology economically viable,particularly for states facing a severe power shortage like Tamil Nadu.
The demand-supply gap in the Indian power sector is around 15% while transmission and distribution losses work out to 30% more.With the cost parity with diesel over a period of time,solar can be a solution at the conception end,saving transmission and distribution losses, said Venugopalan.It can at least complement if not replace diesel.
Bosch is currently testing its photovoltaic solutions in three of its factories Jaipur and Bangalore and Coimbatore.We are already running three in-house reference plants of 40MW each, said Venugopalan.Bosch is also pitching for turnkey projects under the National Solar Mission as part of its partnership with the ministry of new and renewable energy.We are developing captive plants in Gujarat and Punjab and the first of the lot,a 1 MW plant in Gujarat,has joined the grid in January this year, he said.

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Solker launches solar emergency lamp, fan

Our Bureau

Mr K.E. Raghunathan, Managing Director, Solker Industries Ltd, explaining the features of a solar powered emergency lamp and fan at a press conference in Chennai on Saturday.

CHENNAI, Aug. 3

THE Chennai-based Solker Industries Ltd, which is engaged in the manufacture of solar energy products, has launched a solar powered emergency lamp and fan.

The lamp, Aishwarya, has a 3-W CFL bulb, and will burn for three hours for a daily sunlight charge of five hours from a 3-W solar module. The lamp has a reserve capacity of nine hours from the maintenance-free battery. The lamp will cover an area of 150 sq.ft. of total darkness, according to the company.

The solar fan, Sun Breeze, is table-mounted DC-operated and has a rechargeable maintenance-free battery, which can be charged by the solar module or with normal power mains. For a daily sunlight charge, the fan can be used for two-and-a-half hours and during emergency, it can be used for six continuous hours, according to the company.

Mr K.E. Raghunathan, Managing Director, Solker Industries, told a press conference here on Saturday that the soft launch of the solar lamp was done three months ago and the company had so far sold about 7,500 lamps. The fan was launched a month ago and about 450 units had been sold far.

During this financial year, the company hopes to sell about one-lakh units of both the fan and the lamp, of which 60,000 will be in the domestic market and the balance through exports. Solker has exported about 2,500 lamps to Germany and West Asia.

The company believes that there is good export potential in Sri Lanka, West Asia and the African countries.

Mr Raghunathan said that the company would be targeting the southern States initially, and had 72 dealers, of whom 64 were women, in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The lamp, fan and the solar module together would cost Rs 3,000. The solar module was guaranteed for five years while the lamp and the fan carried a guarantee of one year each. The solar module could be used to charge both the lamp and the fan.

He said the other products to be introduced included a car fan system and a battery charger, both working on solar module. Solker would also come out with a do-it-yourself kit, targeted at children.

Mr Raghunathan said with subsidies no longer available for solar lanterns, which had a 7-W bulb, it made sense to go in for a smaller emergency lamp, which was light and provided enough illumination.

The price of Rs 3,000 for the lamp and the fan together was viable assuming a sales volume of 60,000 units.

He said Solker was talking to various companies so that they would buy the lamp and the fan and give it as gifts, with their names embossed on them. Solker would be spending almost Rs 40 lakh on advertising and marketing the two products. The campaign was set to kick off in mid-August. Solker had also launched a Web page, www.solkergifts.com, which would enable Indians living abroad to gift the lamp and the fan to their families living in India.

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600-Mw solar power projects to be commissioned soon

Press Trust Of India / Ahmedabad Apr 16, 2012, 01:38 IST

Solar power projects with a total capacity of 600 Mw will soon be commisioned at a ceremony at Gujarat Solar Park at Charanka village in Radhanpur, officials of Gujarat Power Corporation said here on Sunday.

The projects at Solar Park currently has an aggregate capacity of 214 Mw.

Twenty one new projects generating 210 Mw of solar power would be commissioned at the Solar park on April 19 by Chief Minister Narendra Modi, while other projects have been developed at Anand, Banaskantha, Jamnangar, Junagadh, Kutch, Porbandar, Rajkot, Surat, and Surendranagar, they said.

“After the ceremony to commission the solar power plants, India Solar Investment and Technology Summit and Exhibition would be held at Mahatma Mandir, in Gandhinagar on April 20-21," D J Pandian, Principal Secretary, Energy & Petrochemicals said in a statement.

He said the summit will have sessions on global solar market, investment opportunities in India, financing of solar industry, potential for solar R&D, technology development, and the future of Indian solar sector.

The state government has allocated land at the Solar Park to project developers with adequate infrastructure like power evacuation, roads and water.

The state had signed 968.5 MW of solar power projects under its Solar Power Policy last year.

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India will be a global sourcing hub for solar projects: William D Gallo

Interview with president and chief executive officer, AREVA Solar

Sanjay Jog / Mumbai Apr 16, 2012, 00:37 IST

AREVA Solar, the US-headquartered renewable energy subsidiary of the French nuclear energy group, AREVA, has an ambitious plan to tap the growing solar market in India as a technology provider.

William D Gallo, president and chief executive officer, tells Sanjay Jog they propose to make India a hub to source solar technology for their international operations. Edited excerpts:

Why has India been chosen to pursue your plans in the solar sector?
India enjoys 250 to 300 sunny days a year and is, therefore, a potentially privileged location for solar power plant projects. We have been awarded a contract by Reliance Power to set up a 250 Mw project in Rajasthan.

This is the second major contract AREVA Solar got after we were awarded a contract to build a 44 Mw solar thermal addition to a coal fired plant in Australia.

The AREVA Group aims to position itself as a strategic player in the development of renewable energy sources. We have already established our global supply management facility by setting up corporate offices in Mumbai for our core group and the manufacturing base in Chennai, currently used for our biomass project, but we intend to take advantage of this facility for solar projects and expand it in due course of time. India will be a global sourcing hub for solar projects.

I want to repeat that India is one of the biggest countries in terms of solar (energy) that we find anywhere in the world. The National Solar Mission (NSM) is in place and the ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) is in the midst of working out more plans. Besides, there are several states, including Rajasthan and Gujarat, which have announced plans to pursue solar power and there is a strong pipeline of projects.

Is your CSP (concentrated solar power) technology suitable for India?
CSP systems are suited for a variety of power plants, from 50 Mw to several hundred Mw, as well as a diverse range of industrial steam applications. It is most cost-effective, land conservative and water-efficient.

As a technology provider, we will source most of the steel and glass from the domestic market. A large number of our suppliers are planning to set up plants in India. Besides, there is availability of the skills required for assembling and we will rope in local contractors. The design is simple and we find people of the requisite skills for civil, electrical and mechanical elements.

During construction we also help the developer in surrounding works construction and also operate the plant ourselves during the performance guarantee period. Besides, there are other warranties that extend for several years. The other advantage is feed-in tariff, established in the NSM. Besides, there is an enabling regulatory mechanism applicable under the NSM and state programmes.

What is the investment the company plans to make in India?
We will continue to be a technology provider and as per our business plan, we do not intend to be a project developer or an investor. Our job will be to provide a technology and not to compete with our customer, who is the project developer.

However, we will certainly invest in our existing Chennai manufacturing facility. During 2012, the investment will be $15 million, which will be expanded in the years to come.

We plan a work force of 100 people, a third of (our) global workforce for the solar business. We also deploy mobile manufacturing and fabrication onsite for supporting structures, and applications are done on site. We will invest in this segment, too.

The solar field typically comes to $1.8-2 million or Rs 9 crore per Mw. However, it depends on applications and size of the project, with larger projects being at lower cost.

In addition to the solar plant, our technology is best suited for steam augmentation in existing coal-based and gas-based power plants in India. Solar steam enables power customers to increase electricity production at peak periods and reduce plant emissions. This is cost-effective due to the availability of existing infrastructure.

What procedural and regulatory blocks need to be removed to boost investment in solar?
Regulatory and market certainties are essential for high investment projects like solar. We see strong commitment by the government and it really is essential for investors to stay engaged in the long term.

However, changes in policies lead to uncertainties in even sourcing of project finance. The feed-in tariff is a big positive in the NSM but during the reverse bidding procedure, the quality and sustainability of the project should not be compromised by bidding at an unrealistically lower price.

What other markets are you pursuing?
The major markets are India, Australia and the USA. We want to add focus to the Middle East and South Africa, in view of the announcement of major plans (there) in the solar sector.

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TN govt plans solar parks,eyes 1,000MW in five years

Chennai: As a part of chief minister J Jayalalithaas vision document,Tamil Nadu government on Thursday proposed to set up solar-powered parks.The proposal aims to generate 1,000MW in the next five years through public-private participation.
In the first phase,the state government will spend Rs 1,000 crore on the project.The parks will be set up in southern parts of the state over 500 acres,said industries minister P Thangamani in the assembly.He said the Tamil Nadu Industries Development Corporation (TIDCO ) will be setting up the solar parks.
The minister said apart from announcing a new industrial policy,the state government will also announce a biotechnology policy and an aerospace industrial policy very soon.
Thangamani said TIDCO will continue setting up IT/ITES parks,bio-tech parks,SEZ,road development projects,agriculture export zone and special investment region.He also said Tamil Nadu Magnesite Corporation will set up a windmill to generate 2.1MW at the cost of 12 crore.TNN

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Govt plans wind farm auction policy

Renewable Energy Ministry Eyes OilMins Model For Awarding Blocks

Sanjay Dutta TNN

New Delhi: The government has initiated the process of putting in place a policy to auction,or award,offshore wind farms in a way that could be similar to the auction of oil and gas blocks.The ministry of new and renewable energy has constituted an inter-ministerial panel of secretaries,which also includes heads of pertinent organizations such as Coast Guards,to frame policy guidelines,approve and oversee execution projects and identify private or public sector partners.
The panel is using the petroleum ministrys exploration block auctions as a model.Sources said it was too early to say whether sites would be auctioned or allotted.They added the ministrys move has been sparked by a slew of requests from various quarters for allocation of sites.Indian companies appetites have been whetted due to financial incentives that make wind farms an attractive way to meet the Renewable Portfolio Standards,under which its mandatory to source a certain percentage of energy from renewable sources.
A feasibility study conducted in collaboration with Scottish Development International,a Scotland government initiative to push commerce and trade,identified Kerala,Karnataka and the hills of Goa as potential sites.
It showed Gujarat coastal areas as having reasonable potential too,but prone to severe cyclonic conditions.Wind farms cannot work in wind speeds of less than 8 kmph or over 55 kmph.At present,India has an installed wind power capacity of 13,066MW.The ministrys strategy paper for 2011-17 pegs the potential for generating power from wind farms at 48,500MW.It has set a target of increasing the contribution of renewable energy to the countrys total energy mix to 6% by 2022,with about 10% contribution to the total electricity mix.
The International Wind Turbine Manufacturers Association estimates 65GW of wind power could be installed in India by 2020 and the capacity could reach 160GW by 2030.Wind power costs between Rs 3.50 and Rs 4 per unit against Rs 2.50 a unit for electricity from coal-fired plants.In case of wind farms connected to the grid,the power is made affordable by pooling them with normal supplies.
ONGC has identified one location each at Bombay High South and Tapti basin near Surat for setting up wind farms on its abandoned and unmanned oil and gas pumping platforms.

BLOWING IN RIGHT DIRECTION

tA study has already zeroed in on Kerala,Karnataka and Goas hills (Gujarat ruled out due to cyclonic conditions) tIndia Inc interested as financial incentives make wind farms an attractive way to meet Renewable Portfolio Standards tA ministry paper sees wind farm power potential at 48,500MW over 2011-17,up from current 13,066MW tWind power costs Rs 3.50-4 per unit against Rs 2.50 for coal-fired plants;wind power is made affordable by pooling it with normal supplies

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Mangamvayal: Until recently,Mangamvayal village of Gudalur taluk was like a place trapped in a time warp.A remote hamlet located on the border of Tamil Nadu,Kerala and Karnataka,the tribals were ignorant even about the value of the Indian currency.
For the past 15 years,they had been traveling once a month to a shop 20km away and paying 100 in exchange for 2kg of rice, said R S Ranganathan of the Centre for Rural and Tribal Development (CRTD),who is working to bring a change in these villages.Ration cards from the government too are a recent phenomenon.Cooking is done using firewood that they gather from the forest everyday.
But now,a corporate initiative by Airbus Corporate Foundation and Raleigh International in alliance with the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) and the United Nationals Development Programme is providing them with a steady supply of biogas as well as a source of revenue through animal husbandry.We are building six biogas chambers in this village, said Adam Scott of Raleigh International.Each chamber will provide four hours of methane gas everyday for use as fuel.Each plant is connected to a house only and each such house is given a pair of cows.The milk is a source of revenue and the dung is used to fuel the plant.The entire cost works out to 1 lakh per family.
Instead of hiring local labour for these jobs,all the digging and layering work is done on a voluntary basis by Airbus employees across the world,who spend two weeks each here and rough it out.Its a completely different life here than what we are used to, said Eric Peyrucain,an Airbus employee from France.We have a hole in the floor for a toilet and a wooden frame covered with plastic sheets and topped by overhanging banana leaves for a shower stall.Water is drawn from a local well.But it has been an amazing experience.We are digging the compost pits on our own,joining in the brick laying work for the cow sheds and the cementing of the dome for the chamber.
Kumbuli Mani,a Paniya tribal from the village,is already looking forward to the new ventures.I saw this at my friends house in neighbouring Kadalukolli village, he said.I earn only 500 per month as a coolie in a tea estate.It will be good to supplement that with at least 1,000 from the milk from the cows.Having ready fuel means my mother and sister will not be spending all their time in the forest.My sisters son can now go to school. The project is for a period of three years and includes 36 biogas plants in all in two villages in Gudalur taluk.
(This article is written based on a trip organized by the Airbus Corporate Foundation )

NATURAL DEVELOPMENT: A biogas plant is constructed adjoining every house in the village

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100-crore solar park to come up near Madurai

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: A solar park is being set up close to Madurai by Chennai-based Voltech group,American company NanoPV and UAE-based Arab Gulf Pearl Trading Co with an immediate investment of 100 crore.
The three companies have formed Solacon Energy Pvt Ltd that will implement the project,with Voltech holding 45% share,and the UAE company 45%.
The plant will be set up in phases and the entire project has a potential investment of 1,000 crore.About 100 acres have been purchased and the park will start with about 2MW capacity initially by March 2013,and then expand into a 100MW park by March 2014.
The power generated will be supplied to the Tamil Nadu grid and other consumers.
With the recently announced Tamil Nadu solar policy mandating industries to purchase 6% of their power from solar sources,the park will find several buyers,said Voltech managing director M Umapathi.We have already spoken to a few industries and find they need 1.5MW of power each, he said,adding that other requirements like substations too are in place close to the park so that transmission of energy from the park to industries is hassle-free.
Apart from setting up its own power plant,Solacon is also open to working with companies on a build-operate-transfer model where it will build and sell solar plants to interested companies.
For the equipment required to set up plants at the park,Voltech and NanoPV are setting up a facility close to Chennai to make solar modules at an investment of 100 crore.Land and building are already available and we have to convert it into a solar module manufacturing facility,which will be operational in about six months, Umapathi said.Till then,equipment will be sourced from NanoPVs manufacturing facilities in Thailand and Taiwan,he said.

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Girls develop generator to turn pee into power

London: In a breakthrough,four teenage schoolgirls in Nigeria have invented a peepowered generator that converts one litre of urine into six hours of electricity.
Fourteen-year-olds Duro-Aina Adebola,Akindele Abiola,Faleke Oluwatoyin,and 15-year-old Bello Eniola showed their creation at the Maker Faire Africa entrepreneurs event,in Lagos,southern Nigeria on 5 and 6 November,using a resource that is free,unlimited and easily obtainable.
According to the Maker Faire blog,urine is put into an electrolytic cell,which cracks the urea into nitrogen,water,and hydrogen.
The hydrogen goes into a water filter for purification,which then gets pushed into the gas cylinder,the Daily Mail reported.
The gas cylinder pushes hydrogen into a cylinder of liquid borax,which is used to remove the moisture from the hydrogen gas.This purified hydrogen gas is pushed into the generator,and one litre of urine provides six hours of electricity.
Maker Faire blog described the generator as possibly one of the more unexpected products at the event.While the system does have one-way valves for safety,more robust measures may be needed before it can be sold widely.
The report noted: Lets be honest that this is something of an explosive device.
Nigerias economy is on the rise,however,more than half of the countrys 162 million citizens have no access to electricity.PTI

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Centre may pay windmill owners directly

Bid To Avoid Default By States,Says Farooq;Legally Impossible,Say Experts

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai: The Union government is drafting a policy to ensure that it directly makes payments to private wind power producers,who supply to state power utilities across the country.In Tamil Nadu,complaints by power producers that the state electricity board was not making payments on time have resulted in big players holding back investments or moving their operations out of the state.
I learnt this morning that several companies havent been paid for about 14 months now.We will try to work out a method,similar to the scheme in the National Solar Mission,where the Centre pays the power producers directly, the Union minister for new and renewable energy Farooq Abdullah said,participating in a wind energy conference organised by the Indian Wind Turbine Manufacturers Association (IWTMA ) here on Wednesday.He said a scheme would be evolved whereby the Centre will pay power companies in the event of the state defaulting on payments and subsequently deduct the amount from the allocations made to the state from the Centre.
While the proposal might bring cheer to the wind power industry,there are doubts,however,on how well the scheme would work since,as Abdullah admitted,the matter has to be debated in Parliament,and it is not clear yet how the Centre will make payments to the power producers or from which state allocation the funds will be deducted.
Legally this kind of a state-Centre adjustment is not possible and the law has to be amended financial adjustments are to be made between the state electricity board and the Centre.Also,one cannot say if the Centre would take on this kind of a responsibility because the transaction is between the state electricity board and the power producers and the Centre is not directly involved, advocate N L Rajah,who has appeared in several court cases relating to industrys issues with TNEB,told TOI.
Such payment issues,coupled with larger issues regarding incentives like accelerated depreciation (where the company gets to write off 80% of the project value in the first year as depreciation for tax purposes) and the generation-based incentives,have hit wind investments in the state and across India.Chairman of IWTMA Ramesh Kymal said the overall wind installations in India have come down to about 850MW in the first half of 2012 compared to the average capacity addition of 3100 MW in 2011.

Farooq Abdullah,Union minister for new & renewable energy,garlands Sarah Bryce,MD,Global Wind Energy Council,when she tried to garland him at the inauguration of a conference in Chennai on Wednesday

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Jul 16 2014 : The Times of India (Chennai)

Ladakh makes hay while the sun shines

Sushma.UN@timesgroup.com

Chennai:

A splash of bright blue solar panels amidst the snow-capped Himalayan mountains doesn't quite sound right, does it? Nevertheless, the region could soon house the world's largest solar power plant, with finance minister Arun Jaitley allocating ` 500 crore for setting up ultra mega solar power projects across India, Ladakh being one of the locations.

Counter-intuitive as it might be, Ladakh has the highest potential for generating solar power, as a panel would produce about 5% more electricity there than in places like Gujarat or Tamil Nadu.

“We are working on the projects, and Ladakh and Kargil together will come to about 7,500MW,” Tarun Kapoor, joint secretary, ministry of new & renewable energy said.

Discussions regarding the exact location of the

plants, and details on power sharing and land ownership are on between the different stakeholders, Jigmet Takpa, director of the Ladakh Renewable Energy Development Agency, said. Not just the central government, companies in the sector, such as those running large solar farms and making home lighting systems and solar products, are all looking at Ladakh. “Almost every solar company is looking at coming to Ladakh,“ Takpa said.

“The reason is that contrary to what people think, regions with cold weather and sunshine are better for generating energy than regions with high sunshine and hot temperature. Also, because of the remote location, a lot of liquid fuel like diesel is used for power generation in Ladakh and since solar is cheaper than diesel, solar power would serve as a good source of power generation,“ said Pashupathy Gopalan, president of SunEdi son-Asia Pacific, GCC and South Africa, said.

Added to this is the fact that Ladakh is free of dust and has no clouds, which results in about 320 days of clear sunshine a year.

Ladakh is already home to the world's largest solarpowered telescope and about 30,000 small solar power installations, which supply power to over 2.5 lakh households.

“The region spreads across over 85,000 km of arid, uninhabited land.
Land acquisition is a problem for a lot of solar projects, and this issue is not there in Ladakh,“ said Gagan Pal, vice-president (products and operations), Tata Power Solar. The only issue in the region is transmission lines as it is a challenge to put up a grid which can handle such high capacities.

“Solar plants there are connected to micro or mini grids, and a strategy to optimally integrate these with the national grid is required as building grid infrastructure in this region could be expensive“ said Vineeth Vijayaraghavan, an industry expert. However, this issue too is being sorted out considering the potential in the region. “A 1000 kva line is required to transmit power from such a large solar plant and a consortium with equity from the state government, central government, the Power Grid Corporation of India and other private parties will work on putting up the transmission lines. A line for transmitting power from a hydro-electric plant in Ladakh is on, and this will subsequently be done,“ Takpa of LREDA said.

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samraj · Veteran Member

I bought the Solker product (Both fan and emergency light) around 10 years back just for promoting their ideas and innovations but I see that they have not achieved anything Big today.

When I did my Engg late 80's or early 90's, I never used any Battery for my Casio scientific calculator which was used by one of my relative who did Polytechnic before I started using. Almost, 10 years it was in a usable condition (Becomes outdated later)

1. 10 years it worked on Solar energy - A Solid design by Japanese
2. Log life span - More than 10 years

Comparing that, today I have to charge my gadget at least twice in a day

Are we able to invent a Solar energy for the Gadget first, leaving aside all house hold appliances?

My Ideas:
1. All the screens (TV, monitor, laptop, Tab, Smartphone, Mobile) can be converted to act as a Solar panel as well as display unit, by which size of the product need not to be compromised. At least, my Gadgets need not to be charged frequently if it is made as hybrid since display monitor eats most of the battery energy

2. The Ceilings and Floor can be converted as Solar panels including Glasses - A Possible technology in future to make a house, offices and public areas as self powered. Hence, Electric power can be used only for the heavy machines like Motor, ACs, Heavy Industries etc

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சூரிய ஒளி மூலம் மின்சாரம் பெறும் சுரேஷ்

Chennai firm makes solar fans, lamps