Friday, October 24, 2008

Solar energy incident in the country around 5 trillion kwh

The amount of solar energy incident over the land area of the country is around five trillion kilowatt hour. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is implementing schemes on promotion of solar energy in the country. A total of 4.02 lakh solar home lights, 6.7 lakh solar lanterns, 70,500 solar street lights, 7148 solar pumps, 5 MWp off-grid and grid connected PV power plants, 2.45 million sq. mtr solar thermal collector area and 6.2 lakh solar cookers have been installed in the country. In addition, around 8,000 remote villages and hamlets have been supported for electrification illumination with solar energy systems. However, the high initial cost of solar energy systems is currently a barrier in large scale utilization. 

The National Action Plan on Climate Change has proposed to develop solar energy in the country by setting up a Solar Mission. The details of the solar mission have not been finalized as yet. 

No firm proposal has been received by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy for setting up of solar power generation plants from any foreign country as yet. 

This was stated by the Minister of State for New and Renewable Energy, Shri Vilas Muttemwar in a reply to a question by S/Shri K.J.S.P. Reddy, S. Ajaya Kumar, Adhalrao Patil Shivajirao, Anandrao V. Adsul, Basudeb Acharia, Ravi Prakash Verma and Harikewal Prasad in Lok Sabha.

No comments: