Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

Let there be solar light

Don't just grumble about power cuts. Reach out to alternative sources this summer, urges BAGESHREE S.

WHAT A WASTE! Streetlights take up the biggest chunk of the total energy consumed by the BMP Photo: Murali Kumar K.

When summer is here can power cuts be far behind? It's that time of year again when the first thing you look for in the morning newspaper is the power cut schedule. Not that the most diligent of newspaper readers have it easy, as there are always more unscheduled power cuts than scheduled ones.

So, the classic morning scene of the season goes thus: there isn't a single drop of hot water in the geyser and you have exactly 15 minutes to leave for work. No question of skipping bath because you have poured a litre of oil on your head to beat the heat.

You fret and you fume, but unfortunately, all the fumes coming out of your ears can't heat even a measly glass of water. But fortunately, there is a technology in place to harness the energy of the raging sun over your head. And that's a source that could do much to keep you cool through this season, if only you bother to tap it.

Insurance against cuts

"Solar energy, in fact, is an insurance against power cuts in summer," says Ravindranath N.H. of the Centre for Sustainable Technologies in the Indian Institute of Science. This is more than a viable option, he points out, when the technology has been perfected and there are close to 50 companies in Bangalore alone that will install solar panels in two days flat. "Using electric power to heat water in summer is criminal."

Most of us think nothing of switching on the geyser first thing in the morning leaving it on till we leave home at whatever hour. But what such a cavalier attitude to power use adds up to is staggering. "It is estimated that nearly five lakh homes in Bangalore city consume three million units of power every day between 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. for water heating alone," says Ramesh H. Nagar, Deputy General Manager, Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Limited (KREDL). If just 20 per cent of households in Bangalore switch to solar energy to heat water, about 150 megawatts of power will be saved during peak hours every day.

If energy saved from households is so phenomenal, it's not hard to imagine how much more can be done if bigger establishments also switch to alternative sources. Ramesh says that 75 per cent of the total expenditure of Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) goes into keeping the streetlights glowing. "Can you imagine how much BMP can save if all streetlights run on solar power?" he asks. Big commercial establishments, hotels and institutions can easily switch to alternative power sources in their own interest since they pay so much more per unit compared to domestic users, he points out. "The extra installation charges will be recovered in a couple of years and power supply is completely free from then on." If one wants proof of the viability of such an alternative, Ramesh points out that the entire KREDL building on Queen's Road runs on solar energy. "Our computers also run on solar," says Ramesh.

There have been several other successful experiments at harnessing alternative energy sources. KREDL, for instance, has set up a "hybrid system" at Vikas Soudha that taps solar energy and wind energy.

The ISKCON temple also has similar a system. KREDL has set up biomass gasifiers in some educational institutions on the outskirts of the city that use organic material to produce power.

What is perhaps as important as thinking of alternative sources of power is to take another look at our consumption patterns, says Chanakya H.N., also from Centre for Sustainable Technologies, who has done several experiments on using municipal solid wastes to generate power. Why do we, in the first place, construct power-guzzling buildings? What is the logic behind those monsters with glass facades, for instance?

"We build nice glass hot-cases that trap heat and then run air conditioners to cool them. It makes no sense. Everybody complains about shortage of power and how we can't put on the AC. But the issue is, why did you in the first place make the building so hot that you need to put on the AC?"

Climatology, architect Satyaprakash Varanasi concurs, should become an important part of building design. Using the right building materials, placing of windows in the right place and using sky lights to allow natural light in are some simple things that can make an office or a home more liveable and less dependent on electricity for light and breeze, he says.

Chanakya argues that what needs to be built into our lifestyle is a consciousness and a discipline towards energy consumption. An energy audit of our present consumption patterns would help, Ravindranath adds. "Some 20 to 30 per cent of energy used in an industrial area like Peenya can be saved if we found out where wastage can be plugged." Ramesh points out that if we learn to use power judiciously, we can spare people in rural areas 10-hour power cuts every day.

Small beginnings

Larger issues of social equity and environmental conservation are intrinsically linked to our energy consumption patters. Even as you mull over them, you could do a couple of things straight away in the interest of no more than your monthly electricity bill.

For starters, take a walk to the nearest shop and buy a few compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) and get rid of the iridescent bulbs at home. A 60-watt iridescent bulb can be replaced by an 11-watt CFL. This means not just a reduction in power bill, but also heating up the atmosphere that much less.

Not many of us know that about 95 per cent of energy in an ordinary bulb is converted into heat and only five per cent becomes light. Shocking, isn't it?

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail