Only solar energy can fulfil the energy requirements of the country as all other sources have limited production, said Chetan Singh Solanki, professor at IIT Bombay and chairman of KSPL. Chetan, who is widely credited for his solar energy initiatives in India, was addressing a seminar on ‘Emerging solar PV technology applications for academics’ on Saturday. It was organized by Mangalore University, in association with kwatt Solutions Private Limited, IIT, Mumbai. “During the time of independence, India was generating 2,000MW power and after 70 years, it has reached 3, 07,280MW. Meanwhile, the current requirement is about 8, 00,000MW.
Among the available power, 70% is produced by thermal power plants, 14% by hydro, 1.90% from nuclear and renewable energy contributes 14.9%. Hydro energy, which earlier contributed 26%, has dipped due to environment issues and protests as well as projects going at snail’s pace. While there is no more scope from nuclear and coal, and not much contribution can be expected from renewable energy sources like wind, thermal and wave, the only left option is solar,” he noted. Solanki explained that most parts of the country receive high solar radiation, in the range of 5-7 kW/m2/day. “Germany, which is largest user of solar energy, has only 40% radiation compared to India. Our house rooftops are enough to produce power that we need to light our house the entire day,” he pointed out.
Source:TOI
