Yes, it’s high time we switched to solar energy for our basic lighting, and if possible, to other electrical appliances. In India, especially southern India, we’ve more than 320 days of bright sunlight, and most of the solar-driven appliances does not need direct sunlight to get charged.
In spite of the big advantage (Sun, of course!), very few people (including me!) have switched to solar energy. Why? Well, there are quite a few things that we must consider for this poor response to solar energy usage, such as very little or poor advertising by the state government, and more importantly, by the companies manufacturing such devices. One cannot wholly blame the manufacturing companies for this, but the government. The government holds a lot of responsibility in efficiently managing the power situation of the state, and find ways to conserve power (not by scheduled ‘power shutdowns’ during the hottest of summers!).
There are a lot of advertisements on private television channels on junk foods, drinks, face creams, body lotions, condoms, cars, petrol, air conditioners, refrigerators, televisions, etc., but not once have I seen an advertisement about solar appliances. Of course, the national channels (Doordarshan) do provide some information on the use of solar energy, but what the heck, I (most people) don’t watch those channels anymore!
What the government must do to increase penetration?
1. Frequently advertise about the advantages of solar energy and solar-driven appliances
2. Start using solar energy at a large scale for street lighting
3. Provide incentives to local solar products manufacturers, and for entrepreneurs
4. Provide concession for solar products in the market to enable faster adoption (solar torch lights are priced at around Rs. 750, and after government concession they can be sold at a competitive price of Rs. 600 including taxes!)
A responsible government would have distributed solar-driven products to the people living below poverty line, instead of color televisions. In developed countries, the government plays a pivotal role in educating the masses about the advantages of solar and other renewable energy appliances. When the whole world is concerned about global warming, we invent methods to accelerate them by producing ‘people’s cars’ that run on petrol and not on alternate energy, while there is an exception though.
The manufacturers must think out of the box, and must come forward to providing product-based solutions that could power an air conditioners at a house during the day time. If one progressive state, like Tamil Nadu, could adopt solar energy to a great extent, there will always be followers. If at least 50% of the states in India could switch to an alternative energy, we stand to gain a lot from the few thousand megawatt of energy we will save. That being said, responsible individuals like us should look out for manufacturers and install some solar-driven products at our home – as always, charity starts at home. I found a link, Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency, that lists some achievements, programs, solutions, etc. As usual, I never came across such achievements via general communications medium like televisions or newspapers.
I wouldn’t stop with writing this article, but will try to install a couple of solar-driven products at my home. I will give a detailed report on the costs and how it is to use them. If you guys come across solar products in Chennai, please drop me a comment.
So, let’s act now, and save the planet for our younger generations!
Tags: alternative-energy, electricity, Environment, Government, power, renewable, solar
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How do you see the use of solar in India developing in the next ten years?
Well, not much! though most people over here have realized the need for renewable energy, the government is not taking concrete steps in encouraging solar energy use at homes and small business markets. Having said that, most heavy industries in India (like Bajaj, Tata, etc..) have massive solar or wind turbine installations to cut down on operational costs, and eventually on emissions.
Still a long way to go on the domestic market..
More than incentives for solar energy, I think more taxes for fosil energies will have more impact on the growth of solar energy
Good thought, but this shouldn’t make way for the black market vending of essential oils..
NDTV(New Delhi TV) 24X7’s green marathon/light a billion lives was a stupendous effort.! entrepreneurs,actors et cetera(in short the rich guys..)donated..rather took the initiative of sponsoring VILLAGE(s) completely devoid of electricity and powering it/them with solar LANTERNS..!now that is something i call as social service personified…we need more and more methods to suck the enormous energy from the ultimate reservoir-the SUN..as of now we are short of technology to enable us to use the SUN(LooK now!the early Egyptians knew SUN’s value..and we fail to see it..)uniformly so that we get a constant supply of energy!There is not much(in my opinion) any govnt(considering the time of elections..i dont want to sound as if i am campaigning for any party..hehe)can do about encouraging SOLAR ENERGY usage..well when people themselves have PRE concieved NOTIONS..what LEGISLATURE can do WHAT?hence NGO’s and ACTIVISTS have a larger say…!!people kind of listen to latter more(LOL…we almost have lost faith on LATTER..again any party..any party…underlined…:))
UNLESS we try to kill all our notions about this ‘DIVINE intervention’ SORT of HELP we have from HEAVENS we cant expect a huge success…
something more i wanted to add..(and i forgot..lol)since the sun belongs to no one and everyone in my opinion all countries must come together to make use of this..small example:we cant expect antartica to produce solar heaters!!can we?now we can certainly ask the DESERT countries with aired conditions to do the work for all the countries..needless to mention we also help them set up the plants..simple reason for the difficulty in producing a constant energy from sun in INDIA is that our coutry has a WEIRD and diverse kind of climate..ther is the monsoon,the rains and the winters(whic again are not well defined in southern India)hence we can have an agreement with say..afganisthan or say suadi arabia(hmm bit tough to achieve..)in return GIVE THEM WATER:)(again seems tough)but something like that,something like that…
Good post no sure if i agree with what your saying though, more advertising to me people no about solar energy but don’t want to do anything about it, you wait until there’s power cuts they will soon look at solar power as for more money on advertising to me it will be wasted the money is better spent on health care.
Mark Moran