Good response to TN solar policy

Chennai: 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.