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4.6 During the year the soft loan scheme has been expanded through more branches of the implementing banks. Currently Bank of Maharashtra, Andhra Bank, Punjab National Bank, Syndicate Bank and Punjab & Sind Bank operate the scheme through all their branches in the country. Canara Bank and Union Bank of India operate the scheme through their designated branches. The banks provide 85% of the cost of the project as soft loans repayable in 5 years. The banks are finding increasingly greater response from the customers for soft loans. The award for the best performance for the year 2000-01 was given to Bank of Maharashtra. IREDA has also changed its financing norms for solar thermal systems. The repayment period for loans has now been made 6 years including a moratorium period. The minimum promoter's contribution for such loans is 20%. 4.7 The Ministry has been pursuing with state governments the proposal for making solar assisted water heating mandatory in certain categories of buildings through amendments in the building bye-laws. To encourage local governments to notify the mandatory provision for solar water heating systems, a provision for central financial assistance to municipalities and municipal corporations has been made in the new scheme. The quantum of assistance is Rs.5 lakh for municipalities and Rs.10 lakh for municipal corporations and is meant for training, study tours, awareness creation, demonstration, preparation of brochures/manuals, creating the infrastructure for implementing the mandatory provision. 4.8 A large number of solar water heaters comprising collector area of about 30,000 sq. m have been financed till December 2002. A total collector area of 680,000 sq. m. has been installed in the country so far.
Solar Cooking 4.9 The heat from the sun can also be used for cooking. Solar cooking has the potential of saving significant amounts of conventional fuel. On clear sunny days, it is possible to cook both noon and evening meals in a solar cooker. Solar cooking, however, does not fully replace conventional fuels, but helps in partly substituting such fuels. Different types of solar cookers have been developed in the country. These include box cooker, dish cooker, cardboard cooker, community cooker for indoor cooking and solar steam cooking system. 4.10 A box solar cooker is a slow cooking device useful for small families. It can cook 4 dishes at a time and can save 3-4 LPG cylinders in a year if used regularly. It is an ideal device for domestic cooking during most of the year except the monsoon season and cloudy days. Cookers with electrical back up are also available for use during non-sunshine hours. The dish solar cooker is a fast cooking device useful for homes & small establishments. It can cook almost all types of food for about 10-15 people. The cooker can save around 5 to 10 LPG cylinders depending upon its use in homes or small establishments. The cardboard solar cooker is a low cost foldable device and can be used for preparing one or two single dishes at a time in areas having good sunshine and low wind velocities. The cooker is light in weight and can be easily carried in a bag. The community solar cooker for indoor cooking has a large automatically tracked parabolic reflector standing outside the kitchen; it reflects the sun rays into the kitchen through an opening in its North wall. A secondary reflector further concentrates the rays on to the bottom of the cooking pot painted black. It can cook all types of food for about 40-50 people and can save up to 30 LPG cylinders in a year with optimum use. The solar steam cooking system comprises automatically tracked parabolic reflectors coupled in a series and parallel combination that generates steam for use in community kitchens for cooking purposes. It can cook food for thousands of people in a very short time depending upon its capacity. It is normally installed in conjunction with a boiler that can use conventional fuel if necessary. 4.11 The scheme of the Ministry to promote solar cookers was revised during the year. Under the revised scheme, instead of providing a lump sum grant for promotional activities to state nodal agencies, the support has been linked to the actual sale of box solar cookers in the form of some incentive/ service charges. Higher incentive has been provided for sale of ISI marked solar cookers. The cookers could be sold through state agencies as well as their associated promoters like Aditya Solar Shops/ private establishments/ NGOs/ Cooker Manufacturers/ Women Welfare Organisations/ Self Help Groups/ Institutions/ Petrol Pumps / LPG agencies etc. 50% of the incentive goes to associated promoters if the cookers are sold by them. Support is also extended to reputed NGOs/ universities /institutions /Regional Test Centres etc for organizing promotional activities on solar cookers. Manufacturers are supported for taking BIS approval on their product. It will help in improving the quality of the product being sold in the market and increase manufacturers' interest in the programme. However, there are no subsidies on box solar cooker and cardboard solar cooker. The concentrating type solar cookers are being promoted under a demonstration scheme wherein support up to 50% is being provided to the users. The details of the financial assistance being provided by the Ministry are given in Table 4.1. |
