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A solar energy solution for India’s power needs

The solar-powered success of the Malankara Tea Plantation has national implications.

 India’s most recent power outages demonstrate how important it is for the country and its peers to pursue the sustainable, onsite generation of renewable energy and move away from the fossil fuels and fragile power grids that left millions in the sweltering dark this summer.

Solar Energy Could Solve Developing Nations’ Infrastructure Problems Aol Energy , By Mark Cerasuolo November 1, 2012  The challenges with India’s public electricity grids last summer showed the world what happens when a country’s growth rapidly outpaces its energy delivery infrastructure and diversity of sources. When three of India’s electricity grids failed and more than half a billion people suffered two days of blackouts at the height of summer, the global media reminded us that even on the country’s best day, there is still an enormous portion of the population with no access to power. Solar energy is one way to solve this problem….

Today, India gets only one gigawatt of power from solar energy, a mere 0.5 percent of its total power consumption according to BusinessWeek . But the country’s solar capacity is growing, and the government is encouraging state utilities to tap into that capacity by offering companies the chance to trade renewable energy credits……

The Malankara Tea Plantation took advantage of the Indian government’s incentives on solar photovoltaic installations; it used capital subsidies of 90 rupees per watt up to a maximum of 30 percent of the project cost. It installed solar arrays and charge controllers that gave the company independence from the unreliable grid and made it one of India’s first net-zero energy buildings. The organization has also reduced its annual carbon emissions by 47 tons.
A Leap from Outdated Grids to Forward-looking Renewables

The solar-powered success of the Malankara Tea Plantation has national implications.
It’s possible that India could prop up its infrastructure to avoid future blackouts of the magnitude the country experienced in the summer of 2012. However, doing so is short sighted. Even if India could shore up its grid to avoid another massive blackout, that doesn’t help the millions of its citizens and businesses who rarely or sporadically have electricity at all.

The energy opportunity in India is similar to the one the country had with communications. India could have scrambled to build the wired networks that were the norm in the West. But why do that when the nation could bypass that stage, adopt a wireless strategy, and leap beyond the capabilities of more developed nations? India has a similar chance to move ahead in the global pursuit of widespread, accessible, reliable, renewable energy – leading with solar, a resource in abundance given the country’s location and climate. India’s most recent power outages demonstrate how important it is for the country and its peers to pursue the sustainable, onsite generation of renewable energy and move away from the fossil fuels and fragile power grids that left millions in the sweltering dark this summer.

Mark Cerasuolo manages marketing at  OutBack Power  , a designer and manufacturer of balance-of-system components for renewable and other energy applications. http://energy.aol.com/2012/11/01/solar-energy-could-solve-developing-nations-infrastructure-prob/

November 2, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | decentralised, India