SUN POWER: ENERGY FOREVER
Solar power meets the Indian twin objectives of long-term energy security
and climate change while simultaneously lowering tariffs over reasonable
time periods as the sun supplies free energy.
Sadagopan Seshadri
Chief - Content Development & CE - Infrastructure – Environment
'The Solar Context'
Sun has miraculously
mysterious
source
of
light, heat, and most
importantly energy, was
little understood until
much recently. It outpowers anything that
human technology could
perhaps ever be able to
produce enough energy
to power 500,000 years
”worth of our current
energy demands. Only a
small fraction of the
sun's
power
output
strikes the Earth, but
even
that
provides
10,000 times as much as
all
the
commercial
energy that humans use
on the planet.
The Bright Indian Sun Scene
India is endowed with vast solar energy potential. About
5,000 trillion kWh per year energy is incident over India's
land area with most parts receiving 4-7 kWh per sq. m per
day. Hence both technology routes for conversion of solar
radiation into heat and electricity, namely, solar thermal and
solar photovoltaics, can effectively be harnessed to cater to
light up livelihood of the large poor and energy starved
population.
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Solar provides the ability to generate power on a distributed
basis and enables rapid capacity addition with short lead
times.
Off-grid
decentralized
and
low-temperature
applications are advantageous from a rural electrification
perspective as well as for meeting other energy needs for
power, heating and cooling in both rural and urban habitats.
From the view point of energy security, solar qualifies as the most secure of all sources owing to
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