Solar Energy: The remote possibility for relief in Power starved Bihar

http://saurshakti.blogspot.com/

Suffering in  Bihar 

As the mercury soars high, hand fan is the only way out  in the power-starved Bihar.   People   live in the lantern age there. Electricity in towns fails regularly. In villages, it is not there at all.

All towns districts and villages are hit badly due to  lack of power. If there is power at night, it is considered a gift for the very few who have electricity connections for a few hours. Protests  against power shortage are marked by attacks on Electricity offices resulting in more power cuts.

Bihar faces a deficit of more than 1,000-1,200 MW of power a day. Bihar faces a serious power crisis due to shortage of supply from the central grid.  Bihar produces 100-120 MW a day from its two thermal power units at Barauni in Begusarai and Kanti in Muzaffarpur district. The state is dependent on central grid for power. By conservative estimates, Bihar needs 2,200-2,500 MW of power a day but gets less than 900 MW from the central  pool despite a daily allocation of 1,646 MW.


Solar Energy
http://mnre.gov.in/pdf/jnnsm-g170610.pdf

Government's Jawaharlal Nehru Solar Mission announced in January 2010  aims at a quantum leap in solar power installation in the country targeting  20,000 megawatt (Mw) of solar power by 2022.  Investment proposals over Rs 1,00,000 crore have been received by the Government.  Huge incentives offered by the government are very attractive for  business houses as the opportunities coming up are  very  large.  Last year  the government received proposals worth over Rs 1.2 lakh crore under the Special Incentive Package Scheme from solar and photovoltaics (PV) manufacturers.

To make solar power attractive, project developers have been offered many fiscal incentives, including a 10-year tax holiday for photovoltaic (PV) and thermal solar plants set up by 2020, reduced customs duty and zero excise duty on specific capital equipment, critical materials and project imports, besides loans at cheap interest rates. As per the Generation Based Incentive (GBI) programme, the Government provides financial assistance of Rs 12 per unit in case of solar photovoltaic and Rs 10 per unit in case of solar thermal power fed to the electricity grid from a grid interactive solar power plant of a capacity of 1 MW and above for a period of 10 years.  Solar equipment makers also get incentives as per Special Incentive Package (SIP), for setting up integrated solar manufacturing plants.

There is enormous potential for off-grid PV deployment in India, based on real needs and benefits, in the areas of rural lighting and electrification, for powering irrigation pump sets, back up power generation for the expanding network of cellular towers across the country, captive power generation, urban applications and highway lighting,

Solar energy utilization has just started in India, with less than 10 MW of installed capacity, though the total generation capacity is huge, 1,60,000 MW and the Mission wants to tap 20,000 MW.  The hopes are high, but  questions behind these hopes are no less. 


The basic fundamental question remains:
lack of effectiveness and efficiency of the Mission at the hands of the greedy and profit mongering elements amongst the Governments, Contractors and Business Promoter communities which have so far kept Bihar inhabitable for the past 63 years.  The lack of effectiveness and efficiency of Governments and Contractors was conveyed by the Director(RE) in the Ministry of Power of the Government of India  on August 10, 2007 in the following words : 

" This has reference to your e-mail to Secretary, Ministry of Power regarding electrification of your home villages Chakauti in Sitamarhi district.
(http://chakauti-rkant.blogspot.com/)

The matter has been got checked up. GOI has launched Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana for electrification of un-electrfied villages, intensive electrification of electrified villages and to provide free connections to BPL families. A project under the scheme has been sanctioned for the district Sitamarhi also. Chakauti village was not included under the project by the state for electrification as it was declared as electrifed earlier. However, during detailed survey during implementation of the sanctioned project, it was found that the village has got de-electrified. A supplementary project has been prepared to cover the village.

The RGGVY was for X Plan only. The proposal for continuation of the Scheme for XI Plan is under consideration of the Govt. The supplementary project will be sanctioned after approval of the scheme.

Best regards.

Yours sincerly

Director (RE)
Ministry of Power" 

The fact is that the village was never electrified, and there was no question of its getting de-electrified; no home has been electrified in Chakauti so far. Whatever "done  or undone" was only in the government's records.

   

BRIC Summit Resolution on Energy April 15, 2010

Energy 

19. We recognize that energy is an essential resource for improving the standard of living of our peoples and that access to energy is of paramount importance to economic growth with equity and social inclusion. We will aim to develop cleaner, more affordable and sustainable energy systems, to promote access to energy and energy efficient technologies and practices in all sectors. We will aim to diversify our energy mix by increasing, where appropriate, the contribution of renewable energy sources, and will encourage the cleaner, more efficient use of fossil fuels and other fuels. In this regard, we reiterate our support to the international cooperation in the field of energy efficiency.

 

20. We recognize the potential of new, emerging, and environmentally friendly technologies for diversifying energy mix and the creation of jobs. In this regard we will encourage, as appropriate, the sustainable development, production and use of biofuels.  In accordance with national priorities, we will work together to facilitate the use of renewable energy, through international cooperation and the sharing of experiences on renewable energy, including biofuels technologies and policies.

 

Additional wind power in two years in India

India will add about 9000 MW of wind power generation capacity. The country today has an installed capacity of 4,907 MW. Power generated from wind costs about Rs 3.56 per unit.
 

9,000 MW to be added by PVT. Sector in next two years

The  government announced that  the private sector will generate 9000 MW in the next two years. Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde informed Rajya Sabha that the contribution of private sector in additional generation has gone up from 4 per cent to 18 per cent since 1999.  Seven more ultra mega power projects  will come up besides the five originally planned.  Two of these projects have already begun generation. The Govt. aims at synchronising the power grids of South India from North Indian grids in 18 months. Members demanded increase in electricity generation to meet the huge shortfall of 16,000 MW.

Solar Energy : Economic Necessity for Indian Villages

Solar Panels for Rural Use

Manmohan : Solar lanterns to be promoted

Solar lanterns to be promoted across the country. In the backdrop of rising crude prices and concerns over climate change, Dr. Singh was chairing the meeting of the Energy Coordination Committee. The Centre would promote the use of solar lanterns across the country, he said. The meeting decided that in rural areas grid connectivity be explored for solar energy. Villages should have access to both conventional and non-conventional sources. Committee members stressed that kerosene lanterns be replaced with solar lanterns on account of India's import dependence on crude, the high fiscal subsidy for kerosene and the environmental benefits of solar energy.

Japanese Model of Energy Efficient Buildings

Solar Photovoltaic Energy in Buildings


Japanese housing manufacturers characterise their industrialised houses enhancing their sales with green features integrated into their products in response to the society's increasing demand for the environment-friendliness. Since 1994, the Japanese government had implemented a series of residential PV incentive program until the end of 2005. Today, the housing manufacturers tend to install a PV system as a standard feature rather than merely an option and particularly, the roof of the industrialised housing is well furnished with the PV panels instead of traditional roof shingles or clay tiles, which are called Kawara. Sekisui Chemical uses 5 ft. x 3 ft. (152.4 cm x 91.4 cm) 205-watt crystalline custom-framed modules manufactured by Sharp. The typical size of their building integrated PV systems is 4.2 kW and generates 4,200 kWh per year in Nagoya. Misawa Homes uses multicrystalline modules from a number of manufacturers, e.g. MSK, Kobe Steel and BP-Solar. Sanyo uses their 190-watt high efficiency HIT modules (half c-Si and half a- Si) that are produced in-house; thus, the use of its own PV modules may make the production of PV solar housing more efficient. PanaHome uses crystalline Kyocera PV modules, which typical size of system is 3 kW, which is also being applied to their PV solar community developments. Panahome offers a 10 year-warranty on the PV system (modules and inverter) like other PV housing competitors in Japan and a 25 year-warranty on modules alone.

Net metering and time zone contract

Japanese housing manufacturers mostly locate the solar photovoltaic (PV) power generating system on the rooftop, either tilted or flat. The manufacturers often recommend an active use of all electric homes equipped with PV systems that benefit from the net metering and the time zone contract which are already being put in effect in Japan. Users can sell the surplus electricity generated by PV systems to an electric power company of the region. Based on the time zone contract, Japanese power companies buy the surplus electricity in unit of kWh from users at a higher price estimated at approx. 26 JPY/kWh ($0.25 CAD/kWh) in the day time and sell electricity to users at approx. 6 JPY/kWh ($0.06 CAD/kWh) at night.

Costs

Sekisui Chemical Co. is successfully producing "Net Zero Utility Cost Housing"; in which the users can enjoy the economical benefit from the installation of an induction heating (IH) cooking heater, CO2 heat pump (Eco-Cute) and a PV system. The cost of the 1 kW PV system is estimated at ¥ 490 000 (CAD$ 4 760). The payback period is considered to be 16 years where actual design life is about 30 years or more. In Japan, the average size of a PV system is 3.8 kW.

Sekisui Chemical claims that the cost of their rooftop PV system is 20 to 30% lower than those of other competitors in Japan, because this housing manufacturer is able to negotiate lower PV components costs through large PV purchases with Sharp (PV manufacturer). The installation cost of a PV roof system that is installed after construction of a house, is usually 40 to 50% of the total rooftop PV system cost. However, Sekisui Chemical can reduce the cost to only 20% because of their in-factory completion. The company explains that PV modules are installed inside the factory before the shipment. Sekisui Chemical Company produces about 4 500 new houses equipped with a PV system annually: about 1/3 of their customers select a house equipped with a PV system, a relatively higher ratio compared with 1 to 2% of the national average in Japan. This may indicate that the Japanese housing manufacturers’ cost-performance marketing strategy1 is effective in increasing the sales of PV solar homes.

Sanyo is manufacturing HIT PV panels, a hybrid technology using a blend of amorphous and crystalline silicon: their PV performances are claimed to be 20 to 30% above their competitors. Sanyo Homes benefit from this Sanyo subsidiary.



1 Japanese housing manufacturers attempt to educate their clients to appreciate the distinguishing features of their high-cost and high-performance (i.e. high "cost-performance") housing, in which a wide variety of amenities are installed as standard equipment rather than options.

Building integration approaches

Most manufacturers offer a variety of PV panel dimensions which are usually integrated on South facing sloping roofs. Sekisui Chemical installs Sharp 205-watt modules that are fixed to tailored black frames and sealed to the roofing by making use of a "quick connect" device. Misawa also designs roofs that are entirely composed of PV panels and occasionally, openable windows are seamlessly integrated into the PV rooftop.