THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: R V G Menon had been busy the last one month. That is, after he decided to turn to the Sun for the energy needs of his home in Mudavanmugal in Poojappura. Every evening, he would sit down with a pen and a paper, and calculate the total energy that was used per day, how much of it came from the Sun, how much of it from the KSEB line, and how much he had saved in terms of money. And a month later, he is astounded why the State Government, the KSEB and the ANERT are doing nothing by way of promoting this Green energy solution. ‘’Previously, the solar panels were very expensive. With China developing high purity silicon, the prices have crashed globally. With the subsidy that the Central Government has already announced, if the State too can think of some incentive, many homes, especially the high-end customers, can opt for solar energy as a viable solution,’’ said Menon. The former director of ANERT installed the solar unit at his home on April 15 and by May 15, he could get 76 units of power from the 1 KW system, in spite of a series of rainy days at the end of April. ‘’On sunny days, I could get almost 4.6-5 units per day and on an average about 2.6 units. I have connected every light, fan, fridge and computer to the solar line. What I have not connected include the geyser, heater, a/c, and iron,’’ said Menon. The panels are connected to an inverter kept inside the house which uses the solar energy stored in the battery and thus reducing the peak hour consumption. ‘’When 70 per cent of the battery is exhausted, it switches back to the KSEB line. The 30 per cent solar energy is saved for any possible interruption of the KSEB power supply,’’ said TGCI technical director Shyamkumar, who conceived and designed the solar unit. The installation and maintenance was done by the city-based Megabyte Technologies. The whole installation cost Menon ` 2 lakh, of which a substantial amount should come in as subsidy. But he has no doubts that Sun is going to be a major energy source for the future along with wind and water. ‘’According to statistics, there are about 9.5 lakh consumers who consume more than 150 units and at least 1.2 lakh houses that use 300 units. If these high-end customers install a 1 KW system, 120 megawatts can be generated at the user-end, without any transmission loss or cost for transmission. This is equivalent to generation of 150 MW and setting up a plant for 150 MW will cost at least ` 1,500 crore and a time of 5 years,’’ explained Menon. This additional generation would mean a world of difference for peak hour consumption and it could even lead to some of the generators at Idukki or Sabarigiri being switched off and the water saved. If that is not feasible, Menon said the other options include Hydrogen generation for use as fuel, storage in cells and even giving it back to the KSEB grid. RVG also said there is no point in load-shedding as it is practised now, with many homes going in for inverters. ‘’When the current comes back, the power is drawn again from the KSEB line, which makes the load-shedding pointless. Or else, the government should make it mandatory that all inverters should make use of solar power,’’ said Menon. Even if the government does not make that mandatory, there are many Greens in the city who wish that the government and government organisations like the ANERT and the KSEB would shed their apathy and become more pro-active to Green solutions.
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