Solar appliances in India for save the environment from degradation

Solar energy is a renewable form of energy which saves the environment from degradation. It reduces the degree of contamination and toxic waste as well. Solar energy is powerful enough to replace the need of electricity that we get from 650 barrels of oil per year thus contributing greatly in the reduction of air pollution. To the contrary, the consumption of fossil fuel leads to emission of pollutants which lead to green house effect. The latter when escalated can cause global warming. Global warming will ultimately result in demise of this planet altogether. Some of the solar appliances used are as follows:

Solar light: They store solar energy from Sun during daytime. This energy gets converted into electricity to light up the streets in night time. This greatly helps to reduce the load from power plants.

solar light

At homes, offices or institutions too, Solar light can be of use. Solar panels are installed to collect sunlight and convert it into electricity. DC power is then sent to an inverter, which converts DC power into AC power, which now runs your home or office. Through the use of transfer switches and other safety devices, your clean, renewable power source is capable of powering your home or cabin.

Another approach is to use solar lanterns for lighting. These have a small fluorescent or LED light with a rechargeable battery, in a case which is easy to carry and can stand on the ground or a table, or else hang from the ceiling.

Solar ovens: Cooking with the help of solar energy is quite easy and saves utility bills. Cooking in a solar oven is a great fun. With a box, pan, aluminum foil, a cooking bag, duct tape, Styrofoam insulation and a thermometer, the cooking is done in no time at all.

Solar inverters: Its purpose is to change the direct current (DC) electricity that is generated from a photovoltaic panel into an alternating current (AC) that can be used by in-home appliances and the community electricity grid. Because all photovoltaic panels produce electricity in DC, an inverter is required for all solar power systems to make the electricity usable in home settings. Anyone considering designing and installing a solar energy system for their home should consider hiring a professional to assist in making sure the system is built properly.

Solar chargers: A Solar laptop charger is a great investment and can help ensure that you will always be able to use your laptop whenever you need to, even if the battery is dead and there are no power outlets readily available. Solar laptop chargers can also reduce your carbon emissions and help to eliminate the need to use traditional, polluting forms of energy to generate electricity for your laptop.

Solar energy for battery charging can be used to charge batteries of power pumps or ceiling fans in your home. Battery chargers are used in homes to charge all of those batteries used for video games as well. Also, a solar battery charger can provide a great deal of flexibility for users of small electronic devices such as MP3 players, cameras and cell phones.

Solar Water heaters: The concept of heating water with solar energy is very simple. A good example of solar water heating is a garden hose left out in the sun. The hose absorbs the sun’s energy, turns it into heat and transfers it to the water. Some solar water heaters are not more complicated than this simple example. Solar water heating can be used to produce hot water for a wide variety of uses. Obvious uses include washing, cooking, cleaning, and any other domestic uses of hot water at home.

One of the greatest advantages of solar energy, of course, is that there are no carbon dioxide, methane or other emissions that warm the atmosphere. However, manufacturing, transporting and installation of solar appliances are necessarily accompanied by some of those emissions. But they are infinitesimal compared to the pollution generated from fossil fuels. So, go solar.

India-A rich renewable resources country

The first legal framework on energy was formulated as early as in 1910 named Indian Electricity Act. This Act provided the basic framework for supply of electricity in India. In the post independence era, new policies, legislations and programs were framed which mainly aimed at supply of electricity, oil and coal reserves which supported growth. There was no sign of energy conservation by the nation builder’s at least during the first 15-20 years after independence. Industrial production was given the utmost priority in these days and as a result, energy became a vital entity to meet this priority. Industries accounted for nearly two-thirds of the consumption in the form of oil. Not only oil, but petroleum was also consumed significantly in the household and transport sectors.

In 1973, there was a turning point in the energy scenario when there was a world-wide rise in the price of oil which compelled the Indian Government to trigger efforts towards energy conservation. The Fuel Policy Committee was set up whose primary focus was to substitute oil by coal and as a result there was 15% saving in the consumption of fuel oil in 1974-75. The fifth Five Year Plan went a step further and announced oil consumption to the minimum possible level. Not only this; for the first time in the plan emphasis was laid on development of renewable energy especially using hydropower. Further, in the ninth plan efforts were made to encourage use of renewable sources of energy like sun and wind.

Despite all the talks been made on energy conservation, there was no legislation to implement energy conservation. The Energy Conservation Act was introduced as late as in 2001. The Electricity Act of 2003 further focused on promoting efficient and environmentally benign policies. The need to curb the carbon emissions was felt and the eleventh plan addressed this by reducing energy intensity per unit of greenhouse gas by 20% from the period 2007-8 to 2016-17.

In the current scenario, though availability of power has improved considerably, but still the demand supersedes supply. The transmission and distribution system that brings power to the consumer’s doorstep has several loopholes. More than a quarter of India’s electricity is lost in T& D. India has five regional grids which suffer from poor connection among them. Efforts are ongoing to construct National Power Highway by 2014.

Coal is India’s most important natural resource as it was responsible for 57% of India’s electricity-generating capacity until mid-2012. Although, India accounts for world’s fifth-largest coal reserves, nevertheless it has failed to live up to its financial potential. Oil is the next important element after coal. However, the demand for oil outstrips supply. It is estimated that consumption of oil will grow by almost one-half between 2011 and 2020 to 263.2 mtoe. In order to bridge this gap, oil will have to be imported from other countries which will exert financial pressure on the government. Gas, on the other hand has grown in relative importance. As there are vast resources of natural gas compared to that of oil, planners are capitalizing on the latter to meet the demand supply gap. Large offshore finds have helped to boost India’s reserves from 0.8 trn cu m in 2004 to 1.2 trn cu m in 2011. Of all the energy options, nuclear power plays a relatively small role in India. At present our nuclear power capacity is 5 GW and efforts are on to build 600-700 GW by mid-century which is quite an optimistic target.

In this dismal scenario, renewable energy is the only ray of hope. India has rich renewable resources. The Country is world’s fifth biggest market for wind energy. It is estimated that the installed wind-power generating capacity will almost double between 2011 and 2020. Besides this, favorable government policies have ensured that Solar-power generating capacity surge from less than 1 GW last year to 15.7 GW in 2020. This has helped power to reach in remote areas where electricity network cannot reach. Hydropower, on the other hand will also surge from 44.3 GW in 2011 to 60 GW in 2020. In spite of the efforts made to augment power generation from renewable, they still remain a tiny portion of India’s energy consumption estimate with 1.7% in 2011. Therefore, the need of the hour is to develop this energy source to the best of our abilities and meet the requirements of more than 1.7 billion people of our country.

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