Comments on: Solar Energy in India – A Look at Research Programmes

By: chaitanya

chaitanya — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 01:39:04 +0000

Himanshu
your link of 5 mw financials does not exist.in case you have any inputs on that front am keen to understand .please feel free to email me if you have it.
cheers
chaitanya

By: Kishore

Kishore — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 06:14:43 +0000

I second with writer..a lot of research in the solar field has to be done in india,a meagre ammonut of research in renewable & india’s big plans for renewable energy don’t seem consonant.We still lack a lot of thing about renewable,introducing renewable engineering in IITS & NITs will help to burgeon this sector immensely.unless we would be able to arouse student interset in renewable,how can we anticipate a good green future in india,cause today’s young generation is the future of india.

By: J.Roy Chowdhury

J.Roy Chowdhury — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 04:52:42 +0000

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

By: Palash

Palash — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 07:08:31 +0000

Another company in the same league

http://www.signetsolar.com/index.htm led by our good old IITK Graduates

By: arvind

arvind — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:03:00 +0000

@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.

By: Himanshu Sahani

Himanshu Sahani — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:15:22 +0000

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

By: arvind

arvind — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 07:22:08 +0000

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…

By: Pratyush

Pratyush — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 07:12:19 +0000

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.

By: arvind

arvind — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 06:57:32 +0000

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 …

By: Ananth

Ananth — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 06:29:05 +0000

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.