India is a country with immense potential to become a superpower in the world arena.
One of the fastest-growing economies and an innovator in various fields; but, not every citizen in India has access to basic resources that could better one’s life. In India, a village is considered electrified, if its public institutions and 10% of households can access power and this contradicts the claims of 100% electrification of rural villages by the current government.
Even though the urban areas of India enjoy a relatively consistent power supply it is often hurdled with long hours of Load shedding. India’s power sector is dominated by fossil fuels, in particular coal, which during the 2018-19 fiscal year produced about three-quarters of the country’s electricity. The underutilised capacity of these power plants is the reasons for the prolonged hours of Load shedding. These long hours of Load shedding will result in huge losses for businesses and thus making countries unreliable for investment.
The electricity demand will only rise in the future as the world transits towards Electric automation. Although India adopted power production using renewable energy, there are still untapped reserves of potential resources to be utilised. The Cochin International Airport in Kerala has shown that solar power can be utilised efficiently by becoming the first fully solar-powered airport in the world with the capability to produce 40 MW of electricity.
With about 300 clear and sunny days in a year, the calculated solar energy incidence on India’s land area is about 5000 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh) (or 5 EWh/yr)per year. The solar energy available in a single year exceeds the possible energy output of all of the fossil fuel energy reserves in India. Possibilities of setting up rooftop solar panels on to each household in India can revolutionise our energy consumption and become a viable solution to our power crisis in rural India.
According to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, the Central Government pays 30% of the benchmarked installation cost for rooftop PV systems and this can be viewed as a right step towards a sustainable future. As the effects of Climate change and global warming are taking a heavy toll on the environment the need to adopt cleaner and sustainable energy are more relevant nowadays than ever.
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