Posts

Solar rooftops : Hype or reality?

Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has set a target of 100GW on-grid solar power by 2022. Of this 40GW is expected to come from the rooftop and distributed solar power and the rest 60GW from large scale solar installations[ 1 ]. Although  India has made good progress in the installed solar capacity, rooftop solar still accounts only for 14% of the total solar capacity[ 2 ]. By 15th October 2019, only 1.8MW of solar rooftop capacity had been installed[ 3 ]. Solar rooftop is often advertised as being beneficial to the customer and even for distribution companies (DISCOM's), as it reduces distribution losses and the cost of procurement by the DISCOM's. (solar power is now competitive if not cheaper with most fossil fuel-based power). But is it as beneficial financially as is advertised? and why is the solar adoption rate in India so low?  Integrating solar rooftops with the grid has several technical problems of grid compatibility and security.  Distribution c...
Post a Comment
Read more

Waste generation and management due to solar power

The increasing awareness about climate change and the push by the public and governments to shift from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy. One source that has gained much attention in recent times is solar power. Unlike fossil fuels, power generation using solar panels does not generate greenhouse gases or any other pollutant during the generation itself, but it does not mean it is a completely clean source of power. First, solar panels have to be manufactured, and manufacturing by nature is a polluting process. More recently,  there has been another concern, namely the disposal of solar panels once their life is over.  By weight, a solar panel majorly consists of glass and its aluminum frame. It is possible to recycle these two and silicon (the highest percentage by value) by itself does not have much environmental impact. However, there are many other materials like antimony, cadmium, lead, polymers and other heavy metals[1] that if not taken care could leach ...
Post a Comment
Read more