The Hindu : National : Mandatory use of solar heating system

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Monday, May 25, 2009
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Mandatory use of solar heating system

Aarti Dhar

NEW DELHI: The government intends to make mandatory the use of solar heating systems in all functional buildings under the first phase of the proposed National Solar Mission.

To be implemented between 2009 and 2012, the Mission proposes to make it compulsory for all hospitals, guest houses, hotels and nursing homes to install solar water heaters. This will be applicable to residential complexes too if a minimum plot area of 500 square metres is available.

Target

It is estimated that 40-50 million sq. metres is currently available for installation of solar collectors for various low and medium temperature applications in domestic, industrial and commercial sectors. The target for solar heating application is 7 million sq. metres by 2012.

With mandated installation of solar rooftop or onsite solar photovoltaic (PV) applications in government and public sector undertaking buildings and establishments, a target of 100 MW installed capacity energy is achievable. It is estimated that based on a minimum 500 sq. metres of rooftop or vacant space (such as land kept vacant for environmental or security guidelines, reserved for future expansion or even parking areas) available, in about 2,000 to 3,000 such buildings and establishments, roughly 3 million sq. metres can be used for solar applications.

Also, mandated installation of solar generation capacity of at least 5 per cent of total installed capacity of all thermal power plants based on coal, gas and oil, will result in the setting up of 150-200 MW of solar power per annum, based on the assumption that, on an average, 3,000 to 4,000 MW of thermal power generation capacity is being added each year.

Advantage

The advantage will be that the cost of transmission and distribution would be negligible since the power plant would already be connected to the grid.

It will be up to the plant to either use part of the whole of solar power for some of its internal power requirements, and feed the rest into the grid and earn feed in tariff.

On meeting day-time peaking power requirements through solar energy, the proposed National Solar Mission says currently diesel generation capacity of 20-25 gigawatt (GW) has been installed to meet peaking power shortage and that such shortage may reach 60 GW by 2020. Since diesel generation costs are currently in the range of Rs.13 to Rs.15/kWh, use of solar power would be quite competitive.

Use of Solar PV panels

Use of solar PV panels will also be encouraged to charge existing inverter systems both in the residential and commercial buildings that would help save 30 per cent of grid power that is wasted in charging the current models of inverters.

The Mission also proposes to further expand the solar lighting system to provide access to lighting for 3 million households by 2012 in urban and rural areas. The setting up of solar charging stations are also proposed for solar lanterns currently being distributed on a large scale in the rural areas. This is estimated to cost Rs.1,200 crore.

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