Energy Crisis - India

Prasad IMAX in Hyderabad, in the state of Andhra Pradesh, now has the distinction of being India’s first “green theater”. It has achieved that feat by installing 100KWp solar photovoltaic power generation system on the roof of the theater.

http://ecofriend.com/prasads-imax-shows-the-way-by-turning-green.html

Here is a Spreadsheet to estimate costs of a Solar Grid Tie Kit based on average consumption. The advantage with Grid Tie Kit is that when the solar panels are not producing enough power due to shade or other reasons the system compensates for it from the mains.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgzulydHCKZddHBiZUdtNS0xRkZNYlRJUlZrYzBzMXc

There is another often overlooked socio-economic problem associated with using solar power in homes and agricultural fields. Given the high value of the installed equipment they are lucrative targets for goons everywhere, more so when they are installed in far away fields.

Indian Government should make it a priority to protect these assets and make stealing them a non-bailable offence with rigorous punishment for the guilty. There should be a registration system in place similar to that available for automobiles. Buyers should register their solar panels and always check their purchase against a database available online.

Approximate Solar PV System Capacity:

Daily Solar Insolation (KW / Sq. Mtr. / Day)

X

Rated PTC Capacity of System

=

Total KWh / Day

Eg: Each Solar Panel (210 W PTC) will produce around 1.05 KWh per day with an average insolation of 5 KWh / Sq. Mtr / Day.

Refer to the attached map for Insolation readings across India.

For an accurate calculation use this online calculator :-

http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/calculators/PVWATTS/version1/

What is abundant in India? Sunshine. Solar panels are the best option for generating electricity in India. The problem with solar power is that the panels produce electricity at different amounts based on sunshine, clouds, shade etc. This problem can be mitigated by connecting the solar panel power to the national grid. Government has to give incentive for producing solar power. UK and German governments have introduced a scheme to encourage residents to generate solar power on their roofs. By this, the government or the power companies pay incentive for producing solar power. UK government is currently running a scheme by which each unit of solar electricity produced receives £0.16 per KWh

Solar Street lightning implementation in Gujarat.Government initiative to preserve the power for future use.This system will not use the power from grid or power station.

All the Government office Parking’s should be covered with solar pannels.Parking lot ought to look like this in Germany as shown in the pic. Parking shades the cars while producing free energy

Around 40% of electricity produced in India is used for Irrigation. That's a huge chunk of the pie worth optimizing. We cannot increasingly burn coal to meet these requirements.

In contrast to domestic and industrial sectors which often require a dependable and continuous supply from the grid, Irrigation can use solar and wind energy which by nature are not continuous but can be harvested in plenty. Irrigation can be effectively managed with supply only during day light hours and its reliance on Grid is sub optimal.

The key is Distributed Generation or Local Generation which minimizes losses and maximizes efficiency.

Bio-Fuels - Palm Oil (Crude Palm Oil)

India consumes 558 million liters of petroleum / day (Approx as of 2013) i.e. 204 billion liters / year. [1]

Oil Palm Yield - 2400 liters / acre [2]

Required crop land - 85 million acres
Total Agricultural land - 444 million acres. [3]
Utilized Agricultural Land - 391 million acres. [3]

Un-utilized agricultural land of 53 million acres itself can reduce oil imports by 60% and bio-fuels are carbon neutral :-)

References:
1. http://goo.gl/sXvZNX
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_biofuel_crop_yields
3. http://www.tradingeconomics.com/india/agricultural-land-percent-of-land-area-wb-data.html