 |
|
India is in the sunny belt of the world. The country receives solar energy equivalent to more than 5,000 trillion kWh per year, which is far more than its total annual energy consumption. The daily average global radiation is around 5 kWh per sq.m per day with the sunshine hours ranging between 2300 and 3200 per year. Though the energy density is low and the availability is not continuous, it is now possible to harness this abundantly available energy very reliably for many purposes by converting it to usable heat or through direct generation of electricity. The conversion systems are modular in nature and can appropriately be used for decentralised applications. SOLAR THERMAL ENERGY PROGRAMME 4.2 Solar thermal technologies utilise the heat energy from the sun for various purposes. Depending on the technology, the temperature of the output thermal energy can vary from as low as ambient temperature to as high as 3000 oC. This opens up a vast area of applications including power generation and refrigeration. As a result of sustained research and development, some technologies have already been developed and are in the stage of large-scale exploitation; a few technologies are still required to be fine tuned after testing them in a variety of field conditions. R&D is also being pursued to develop newer technologies and processes. The solar thermal energy programme of the Ministry has been designed to promote utilisation of available technologies optimally and develop newer applications. The status and the promotional efforts related to the relevant technologies are reported below. Solar Water Heating 4.3 Solar water heating systems (SWHS) have been commercialised in many countries of the world including India. Their technical feasibility and economic viability has been established. It is now recognised as a reliable product that saves substantial amounts of electricity or other conventional fuels, leads to peak load reduction and prevents emission of carbon dioxide, a major green house gas. The initial scepticism about the utility, effectiveness and maintenance has given way to widespread product acceptance. Depending on the site, type of utilisation and the structure of electricity tariff or fuel prices, the pay back period of the technology may vary from 2 to 6 years. To promote widespread utilisation of the technology, the Ministry has been operating an interest subsidy scheme being implemented through Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) and a few designated banks. This helps offset the high initial cost of the systems, provides an acceptable pay back period to various end users, stimulates the market and results in establishing a strong manufacturing base & after-sales service network.
4.4 On the basis of the experience gained in operating the Solar Thermal Energy Programme during the Ninth Five Year Plan period, a comprehensive scheme for the Tenth Five Year Plan has been formulated and notified. The interest subsidy scheme has been extended for the entire Tenth Five Year Plan. Under the new scheme, the banks have been authorised to finance solar water heaters up to a capacity of 5000 litres instead of 2000 litres. The subsidised rate of interest is 5% to the end users. Considering the prevailing interest rates in the market and structure of income tax, the rate of interest for loans to end users in the commercial category through IREDA has been reduced to 7% from 8.3%. Housing co-operative societies and developers of real estates have also been made eligible for soft loans for installing solar water heaters in bulk at an interest rate of 5%. However, all borrowers taking loans at 5% interest rate (except individuals) are required to give an undertaking that no accelerated depreciation allowance would be availed. 4.5 It has also been decided to include solar water heaters based on evacuated tubular collectors (ETCs) under the soft loan scheme. Currently ETCs are not being manufactured in the country. However, the introduction of ETCs for solar water heating is expected to broaden the application area and promote the solar water heating technology further. On the basis of the test reports issued by MNES test centres, three companies have presently been recognised for supply of ETC based solar water heaters under the soft loan scheme. |
