Pooja Bhatia
India is an agricultural land which thrives on sunlight to feed the nation. While the potential and culture of our farming economy are under continuous stress, there still exists an opportunity to change the shaky framework of accepted norms. The simple step forward is to mould the natural abundance of sunlight a bit more in our favour. The solution lies in our problem. Barren or uncultivated lands can produce mega amounts of green energy through solar parks established there.
Countries all over the world, developed and developing, have come on a common platform to pledge for the big cause. China has successfully invested 12,000 mw in 2013). Not only does our country have an ample opportunity to harvest the solar energy of the barren land, but the physical map of India shows how much our efforts can fetch us. From hill stations where a small area can be adapted to capture the naked-eye exposure to sun rays, to barren pieces of land, India has all that it takes to offer a good solar power capacity.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he was Chief Minister Gujarat, was instrumental in putting the State on Asia’s solar power map. Now, his Make in India campaign can take the vision forward. Solar engineering has the potential to bring the power magic to some 300 million homes deprived of electricity every day.
The Chiranka Solar Park was set up in Gujarat to achieve an ambitious State level target of 900 mw of solar energy. This initiative, termed as the biggest solar park of Asia, was under the control of a strong administration, and a result of cooperation between the locals and the State Government with no conflicting media noise. The commitment to this project was also motivated by the significant growth in agricultural land to 7,00,000 ha with a growth rate of 10 per cent in agriculture. The developed smooth roads of Gujarat only encouraged investors to be able to better monitor the tracking of the mega solar plant. Gujarat, today is known for its uninterrupted power supply for common consumption. Much of this achievement can be attributed to the foresight of building a solar-enabled platform.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he was Chief Minister Gujarat, was instrumental in putting the State on Asia’s solar power map. Now, his Make in India campaign can take the vision forward. Solar engineering has the potential to bring the power magic to some 300 million homes deprived of electricity every day.
India has now come under one big umbrella for a solar power vision, with strong commitments from many State Governments. The Union Ministry of Renewable Energy has set aside a gross budgetary support of Rs 4,050 crore to cultivate local sunshine spread from western regions to central and south, while covering the agricultural lands of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and the rest of the north. The target of 20,000 mw green generation capacity in the next five years can be achieved by each State contributing an average of 1000 mw. Notably, the hill state of Meghalaya has also come forward to mark a contribution of 100 mw to the project. To ease the use of the land, the Government has put statutory regulations in place before auctioning the land.
Tata Power Solar has recently built a 100 MW solar project for the NTPC in Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh. The solar power project is spread over 500 acres. However, this has not meddled with the natural ecosystem. First Solar Power India, the local subsidiary of the Nasdaq-listed First Solar, has also shared its commercial plans to build solar plants in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, with a capacity of 80 MW and 50 MW, respectively. This is the first state of the project initiated by First Solar in India. The total project capacity is a 260 MW. These two plants is expected to provide power to approximately 2,27,500 average homes in India.
India stands committed to harnessing the power of our natural resource. The Swiss engineering marvel, a solar plane on a journey to embark the solar power, was received with much fanfare in Gujarat, and then Varanasi. The hype and glitz in the media for the cause has been a plus factor in promoting solar energy.