WRT: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mukto-mona/message/49197
Dear Mr Ray,
I find it bewildering that every single Indian article on solar energy
speaks ONLY about solar photovoltaics and nothing at all about Solar
Thermal Energy Systems. While the former convert sunlight directly into
electricity, the latter are just like conventional steam turbines but
with a difference - instead of a fossil fuel heating the water to
produce steam and drive a turbine, these use sunlight to do this.
Admittedly, it might be difficult to find adequate sopurces of water in
a desert state like Rajasthan, for example, but there are numerous
areas on India's coasts where this technology could be applied. The
costs would not be significantly higher than setting up a coal fired
thermal powerplant and whatever differences in initial cost may exist,
they would easily be made up as the plant would not require to use any
fossil fuel once it is set up. It is really strange to me that this
technology, which has been used by the French on an experimental basis
since the 1970s and which is being rapidly set up in several parts of
the world these days finds zero mention in Indian literature on this
subject outside the SEEM discussion forums. Could a vast body of
experts be unaware of this technology? Or are they 9gnoring it for a
reason? I am not going to make any guesses here.
Some plants that have recently been commissioned include Nevada's Solar
One http://nevadasolarone.net/ the Saguaro Solar Trough Powerplant in
Arizona:
http://www.aps.com/_files/renewable/SP017SaguaroSolarTrough.pdf There
are large plants under construction in South Africa and Saudi Arabia at
the moment and I wonder why, with some of the best engineering talent
in the world in its IITs, India cannot design and use this technology?
Even if we take the Solar Photovoltaic route, there are breakthroughs
in manufacturing cheap solar cells that are translating into a direct
reduction in the cost of setting these units up. One company, Nano
Solar http://nanosolar.com/ already sells low cost solar panels and it
has an Indian on its board of directors.
There is also significant research going into thin film solar
photovoltaics at several institutions including the following:
Idaho National Laboratory and University of Missouri
https://inlportal.inl.gov/portal/server.pt?
open=514&objID=1269&mode=2&featurestory=DA_101047
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and Osaka University (this is a high
tech proposal with a space based system that converts solar light into
lasers and then redirects them towards the earth to generate
electricity on the ground): http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/lasers/japan-
aerospace-exploration-agency-develop-solar+powered-lasers-for-energy-
generation-297145.php
Solar Nanoflake Technology developed at the Niels Bohr Institute at the
University of Copenhagen:
http://www.netpublikationer.dk/um/8770/html/chapter15.htm
I can guarantee that at every one of these universities / research
centers there are more than a few Indians and other South Asians
working. I wonder why, with this being the case, none of this work is
even mentioned in the writing that comes out of India? Would you not
agree that there is a need to research the antecedents of those with a
vested interest in the direction of their comments in the face of
considerable evidence both from research institutions and in industry
that breakthroughs are being made virtually by the day?
Best wishes,
Mehul Kamdar
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