SOLAR ENERGY
Government is promoting
all indigenous energy resources, conventional like hydro and thermal
as well as non-conventional including solar, depending upon techno-economic
feasibility/viability with the aim of making them complementary
to each other. However, solar energy is still not competitive
to conventional energy sources for large-scale power generation.
Hence, it is being promoted in areas where it is useful and viable
particularly in the remote and hilly areas. A total of around
2,56,673 home lighting systems, 47,969 street lights, 5,09,894
solar lanterns, 5591 water pumps, 7,00,000 sq. meters of collector
area for water heating, 5,30,500 solar cookers and 3.14 MW capacity
of power plants have been installed and 800 villages electrified
through solar energy till 31.3.2003. It is proposed to install
another 53,000 home lighting systems, 600 solar generators, 1600
water pumps, 55,000 sq. meters of collector area water heating,
35,000 solar cookers and 1.2 MW capacity of power plants including
street lights during the current year. In addition 850 villages
are proposed to be electrified through solar energy.
The other sources
on non-conventional energy include wind, small hydro, biomass,
urban and industrial wastes, geo-thermal and ocean energy. Studies
and estimates prepared by the Ministry and various other institutions
have revealed that there is a potential for generating 45,000
MW from wind, 15,000 MW from small hydro, 19,500 MW from biomass,
2,500 MW from urban and industrial wastes, 10,000 MW from geo-thermal
and around 15,000 MW from ocean tides in the country.
This information
was given by Shri M. Kannappan, Minister of State for Non-conventional
Energy Sources, in a written reply to a question by Shri A. Narendra
in the Lok Sabha today.
