Solar energy in Rajasthan : Potential and Possibilities

Rajasthan has a huge potential of solar energy, the climatic conditions of state, makes it ideal for capturing the solar rays in abundance.

The climate of Rajasthan is arid and semi arid, the desert of Thar is spreaded on the 2/3rd part of state. These climatic specialties makes it able to receive almost 300-325 sunny days in a year and 6-6.4kwh/m2/day of sun radiation, which is second highest amount of sun radiation all over the world. The average temperature of western cities of Rajasthan like Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Barmer, Bikaner and Churu is between 35-40 degree, and in summer, it used to reach above 45degree. The availability of solar energy in Rajasthan is 6 to 7KW/sqkm, that provide the potential of one lakh MW energy for commercial production capacity every year, out of which only 883 MW is currently being produced. Certainly, it is not a satisfactory situation; the potential of solar energy is not being fully exploited yet.

At present, India is depend on fossil fuel energy resourses for its 70% energy necessities, total installed energy capacity of India is 156909 MW, out of which 64% comes form thermal plants. Renewable resourses account only 10% share (13,242MW) and solar energy stands at a meager fraction of 9.84MW. (Source: Ministry of Energy)

What is Solar Energy

Solar energy can be generated through two methods, solar thermal power plants and solar photovoltaic cells. The solar thermal power plants used mainly for MW level energy projects and SPVs are meant for small KW scale projects. The solar rays contains photons, when these photons fell upon SPVs, it start an action of absorbing photons and producing voltage, that meant to store in those cells as energy packets.

The government of India has launched, The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNSM) on fifth march 2010, with the target of 20,000 MW energy installation capacities until 2020. The mission has a special focus on Rajasthan, which aims to make Rajasthan, a solar hub. The 11solar energy projects of 66MW capacity of state government will be included in the first phase (2009-13) of JNSM. The first phase is aimed to establish the solar energy units’ of1000MW capacity. The state government of Rajasthan has already marked-up 20,000-hactyar land for solar energy projects in above-mentioned cities.

Previous Initiatives in Solar Energy Field in Rajasthan

Solar energy industry is still in its initial stage. However, the government of Rajasthan is encouraging private sector investment through various fiscal and promotional incentives these incentives given for both solar thermal and SPV projects. The state government has made a project to develop Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Barmer as Solar Energy Enterprises Zone (SEEZ). The Mathania solar power project (140MW) is a milestone in this field, as it is the first solar/thermal hybrid power plant of country. This project is based on integrated solar combined cycle (ISCC) technology, it will use parabolic trough mirrors to focus sun heat and further drive the turbine to generate power. This plant will produce 40MW energy, which will cost 1 million/MW and still cheaper then other methods like SPV.
Besides these steps, few more small solar power based projects are working successfully, such as, 100KW capacity power plant in Gourir ( jhunjhunu), which is first of its kind in country, a solar energy driven refrigerator in Balesar (Jodhpur), state’s first totally solar energy electrified village in Jaipur etc.

In private sector, many companies are taking interest in solar energy. Reliance and Moser Bear both are developing solar power plants of 1 to 5 MW each. In which Moser Bear’s project will be the largest grid connected solar farm in India. The Rajasthan government has signed a memorandum with Clinton foundation on january2010. According to which the foundation will provide technical assistance and other necessary help to establish solar parks of 3,000 MW to 5,000 MW capacities in the state.

Centre of Excellence in Solar Energy

IIT-Jodhpur would be developed as the centre of excellence for the R&D purpose in solar energy and renewable energy field. The major area of research will be focused on storage of renewable energy, to minimize its cost, problems in grid interface, transition and up gradation etc. IIT will work with the collaboration of the government of France; its campus will be a green campus to promote awareness about environment and its conservation. In this context, it will set an example about the commercial capability of solar energy for various usages.

Under the JNSM, the central government has decided to start a project, named “Rooftop PV and small scale generation program”, that is intended to create awareness about solar energy among the common people and to let the investors know about its commercial possibilities. This project is in first phase of JNSM, under which small SPV based solar energy plants of maximum 20MW capacity will be setup in every state. In rajasthan, these plants will carry one to three MW power capacities and the state government has already marked up the land of 10 acre each in various cities, including SEEZ. Here one more fact is in favor of Rajasthan, as there is ample of barren land is available, which can be easily used to construct the power plants, this would not only raise employment opportunities in state, but will also attract the private investment and trade.
The central government has made a target of 100 MW power generations in the first phase of JNSM and according to speculations; half of that (500MW) can be produced in Rajasthan.

Draw backs of solar energy

The overall picture raises lofty hopes for the future of solar energy, but still there are many set back on the way towards green and clean energy.

Primarily problem is high cost, installation cost of a solar thermal power plant is two to 3 times higher then the traditional thermal plants.
Cost of per unit energy production is also higher then conventional energy production. Another issue is the lack of awareness about solar energy, its uses, viability and reliability. Solar energy cannot be produced in daytime, so it raises questions in a common person’s mind about its all time availability. Solar heaters, solar cookers and other solar equipments still costlier and quite complicated in use then conventional equipments, these tings used to keep the common away from solar energy. Solar equipments, such as cookers, water heater and solar panels used to occupy a lots of space, which is not suitable according to modern housing where space shortage is already a huge problem.

However, above issue are not such problematic that could not be solved. The JNNSM has a special attention on cost efficiency issue. the GOI is working on a roadmap to bring down import duty and custom duty exemption on capital equipments and other materials, low interest loan for solar plant installation etc. apart from these initiatives, some kind of subsidies or incentives can also be given to the consumers to encourage them. We can hope that these steps will help to promote the use of solar energy and make it consumer friendly.