The state solar policy has elicited positive response across the board with the industry also responding positively, said Sudeep Jain, chairman and managing director of Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency (TEDA).
“Many innovations have been built into the rooftop systems for the solar-powered ‘green’ houses provided to the below poverty line (BPL) families and these systems have come out to be very well designed,” Jain said speaking at the ‘Conference on Solar Power Generation’ organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Wednesday.
Tracing the salient points of the Tamil Nadu Solar Energy policy, Jain said powering 60,000 houses in Tamil Nadu with solar energy was the largest such programme in the country. Recalling another initiative that involved conversion of 20,000 streetlights to solar every year, he said 20W LED lights have replaced incandescent bulbs, tube-lights and CFL
Also, clusters with a centralised solar plant has also been formed which have remote monitoring units, giving performance data every 30 minutes on the website, he informed.
The next step, Jain said, will be to move away from the need for battery backup, the weakest link in the rooftop solar systems. He hoped that challenges such as maintenance of rooftop units, training of manpower, and durability of the solar systems would be overcome through industry tie-ups.
Dr Amita Prasad, principal secretary, energy department, government of Karnataka, requested the industry to make solar solutions affordable. Karnataka has identified Hubli, Dharwar and Mysore which have immense potential for solar based power generation and the state government had set a target of 2000 MW generation capacity by 2020.
