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A ray of hope
- It is peak hour traffic in Mumbai and your car stops at a signal. A bunch of kids run to your window. Guess what they are selling? Not selling newspapers or toys. They are selling solar panels.
- In less than a decade, solar panels on your rooftop will be powering your television, refrigerator and lights in your house. Your rooftop will be producing more electricity than what you need
- It is elementary physics that when light falls on certain semiconducting materials like silicon, its energy knocks off electrons off the atoms, which can be made to flow and the flow is electricity.
- Solar panels have been powering instruments on board satellites for 60 years.
- Earlier, we did not use solar much because it was frightfully costly.
- However, in the last decade, as the fear of climate change began gripping the world, some of the developed countries in their enlightened self interest, began looking for alternatives.
- With incentives for generation and obligation for purchase, ‘solar' moved from labs into homes.
- A combination of large production capacities and improved efficiency caused the prices of solar panels to fall. About four years ago, to put up 1 MW of solar plant, it cost Rs.21 crore. Today it costs less than Rs.10 crore. Still, solar power remained significantly higher than conventional power.
- Although there were a few schemes that incentivised solar power plants here and there, the first major policy driver came in the form of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, which was one of the eight missions under the National Action Plan for Climate Change.
- There are two ways of producing electricity from solar power — the panel way and the mirror way. The solar mission's idea is to engender creation of both — 10,000 MW each.
- Early this month, under Batch-II, tariffs fell even lower. A French company, called Solairedirect, has offered to put up a 5 MW plant and sell power at Rs.7.49, setting a new benchmark. The average tariff moved from Rs.12 in the first batch to Rs.8.80 in the second. Solar power is getting within the reach of the common man.
- It is expected that prices will further fall, and solar power will sell for Rs.5 a unit in just a few years.
- With projects coming up both under the National Solar Mission as well as under the schemes offered by various States, India's solar capacity will grow to at least 1,300 MW in 2013, from 186 MW now.
- Companies such as Tata BP Solar, unable to compete against what appears to be distress sales by overseas manufacturers, particularly the Chinese, have had to shut down operations.
- Will the government impose a customs duty to protect and develop the local solar equipment industry? Or will it allow cheap imports in order to bring down costs and therefore tariffs? The coming budget will have an answer.
- In addition, there is the issue of perfecting the grid so as to handle solar power. The problem with solar power is, if a cloud passes over, the generation will drop and when the sun shines again, it will pick up.
