Solar Energy in India – A Look at Research Programmes
[In continuation with our coverage on Solar Energy in India, we look at research happening in India.]
I visited the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNES, Govt. of India) website and this is what they’ve got on Solar Energy Research: “A few identified verticals to sponsor research in the field of product development with solar cells”. Now their website looks terrible in Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome (Is GOI even aware of cross-browser issues in a world without Microsoft’s IE?). But then I found their website quite effective in dispersal of information on Solar Initiatives by the Government. At least for those who are looking at Sun as an opportunity.
Recently, there was Inaugural Function of World’s largest Solar steam cooking system at Shri Saibaba Sansthan Trust, Shirdi which ensures production of steam at desired temperature and pressure for up to 20,000 pilgrims a day. A superb feat for fellow countrymen using greenest of technologies on earth.
Broadly, the MNES has divided solar initiatives into two verticals:
- Solar Photovoltaic Programme
- Solar Thermal Energy Programme
Though there are roughly 40 thrust areas for R&D in the Solar Photovoltaic Programme and the Thermal Energy Programme, but the actual number of projects on which research is actually taking place is only: three – one at IACS, Kolkata and two at IIT Delhi. We’ve contacted Dr. B. R. Mehta and Dr. J C Joshi of IIT Delhi for their views on usage of Solar Technology in rural India.
But just as food for thought: Does having only three active ‘Research Programmes’ truly represent the need of solar initiatives in the country? Don’t we need more hands (we mean the entrepreneurs, in particular) to help the poorest of the poor by bringing in expertise and willingness to plunge in business from the entrepreneurs? ‘Inclusiveness for common entrepreneurs & startups is a way forward to truly reach the common man’ but how deeply does the new Government look at it?
Last but not the least, do the Government & a select few Institutions have sufficient manpower, infrastructure and skill-set to carry out cutting edge research as it happens world over?
What’s your opinion?
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Thanks for the informative post. Though the research is not sufficient, that is what the government is doing. Recently in a govt radio station, I have heard about government guaranteeing buying power from grid connected solar power plants, which is sure to boost production. Do you know of any such info? Please let us know.. Looking forward for more posts on this topic.
Ananth, I did not come across guaranteed buying from solar plants scheme … but just to show you some pitfalls while working with the Government… they will not buy your power at a ‘price’ other than the ‘regulated’ one. And normally the state governments decide on tariffs. There is a concept of “Fall Clause” in GOI which ensures that buying prices are the lowest and uniform in the country for the Government. You may want to check on all this, before you plunge and invest …
Arvind,
I would like to think that a few research projects is the right direction. The other, as you suggest is subsidizing the cost of solar production (govt doesnt need to buy it at a higher price, they can always subsidizer to make prod costs lower). E.g. land for cheap, water supply, import duty reduction etc.
I would think its the intent that matters most here. Inclusiveness will come when people like us are convinced that the govt is intent upon making this the energy of the future.
I can carry on about challenges with Indian governments – but I will leave that for another day and over beer.
A solar powered beer-production unit??? pretty interesting… and mollasses would be another by-product which too could be monetized, you see [:)]. kewl.
On the contrary, my highlight is on the remaining thrust areas which do not have any research team behind… Does not the Govt. have a responsibility to mitigate the initiatives among the techies? corwdsource in other words to succeed and fasten the turn-around time of projects…
Poorly researched article. I think this post is incomplete without probing the research happening in the private sector in India on solar power. Two big names which come to my mind instantly are Moser Baer & Tata BP solar.
Since 2005 Moser Baer has acquired several companies in US to get access to the technology which would make them the cheapest manufacturer of solar panels in the world. They have filed some patents (although I dont know if the research happened in India or US).
Almost every installation I see these days of solar water heater (Govt of Karnataka mandates one for a house with SBA >2400 sqft or something like it) is Tata BP’s. They have had a series of launches targeted at the Indian market.
We have a billion dollar industry in making even though after govt subsidy, production cost for solar power is ~Rs. 19 per unit. In contrast my first 30 units in Bangalore cost only Rs. 1.85 per unit. Check out financials for a 5 MW plant being set up at Village Tinwari in Jodhpur district here: http://www.moserbaerpv.in/mb-notice-eng.pdf to really understand the economics of this sector.
I think its a chicken and egg situation. If the govt goes ahead as rumored to set targets of 20GW solar power by 2020, there would be enough subsidy to get a lot more folks focusing on this sector. Hell, I might be one of them
@Himanshu… even PSU behemoth companies like IREDA have existed in the field for decades, if you are aware about them… But these industries are not about R&D in the field…rather its more about application of available technology.
If you talk of research in the field, compare it with http://nanosolar.com into which presumably Google has invested recently. There is the difference bro.
Another company in the same league
http://www.signetsolar.com/index.htm led by our good old IITK Graduates
I would like to know about the effective distribution mechanism of solar electricity – particularly in a georhaphically iosolated place where conventional electricity is not possible to deploy due to cost and other reasons.How many such isolated solar ecteric grid is available in India or abroad ?
J.Roy Cowdhury
Scientist.
Central Mechanical Engineering Research Insttitute.
Durgapur