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Tapta camee karabhaya haraye Visvakar mane |
Namastamo bhinighnaya rucaye lokasakshine ||
Salutations to you, possessor of the lustre of refined gold, destroyer of
ignorance, the architect of the universe. Salutations to the destroyer of
darkness, Splendor incarnate; the witness of the world.
A shloka from Aditya Stotram
Over the years there has been quite a hue and cry regarding climate change,
and governments the world over are working at finding clean power solutions,
namely renewable energy. Of the many options, solar energy has the highest
potential, as it can be employed by the private sector as well. In fact, a few
companies have already started transitioning.
Since time immemorial we have been looking up at the sun to give us power and
energy to sustain ourselves. It is true even today, in the age of supersonic
jets and inter-planetary probes, we still look at the sun to power our home
appliances, office equipments, cars, and what not. Much as Lord Rama did
thousands of years ago, we are still looking at the sun, albeit instead of
bowing our heads and cupping our hands, we have photovoltaic solar cells that do
the same for us. The difference being that now the worship is termed as clean
energy or solar energy. And there are very pertinent reasonsmore so for a
developing nation like Indiawhy quite like the ancients before us, we are again
looking at the sun to save us.
Need for Solar
The past few years have been quite astonishing in terms of economic growth
in India. With the economy growing at close to 9% y-o-y, everywhere around us
are perceptible and telltale signs of this growth. But even as those big
expressways and massive glass buildings come up, there are serious questions
that are being raised and need to be addressed; do we have the means to power
this growth?
Considering the record high prices of oil, this growth puts added pressure on
Indian infrastructure, especially the power sector. The gap between demand and
supply widens as each new building comes up in Mumbai, Bangalore, Gurgaon, or
even Kochi. The result: acute power shortages, regular load shedding, erratic
power supply, or complete absence of it in rural areas. Enterprises, especially
IT enterprises, have been under severe pressure to make arrangements for
round-the-clock supply, hence a big chunk of their operating costs goes into
running generators or inverters.
But even these stop-gap solutions are not enough. Take the case of Mahindra
Finance; because of its spread to small towns and cities, Suresh Shanmugham,
national head, IT, Mahindra Finance, needed to find a way so all his field units
could be connected to the central unit. His biggest issue was that of powering
his branches. After much consideration, Shanmugham launched MF ESAVE BITS, a
solar powered project within the company. We have put in processes to analyze
and evaluate the amount of power that is consumed by different departments and
segments of the company. Further at remote locations, where constant power
supply is unable and conventional means like generators are costly and not
tenable, we have employed solar power as an alternative. Solar power gave us the
ability to connect rural branches on a continuous basis, and we have been able
to serve our clients in a much better fashion because of the same, he says. The
Bank of India undertook something similar as well (see case study). Of late,
Shanmugham has become quite an expert on solar energy, doling out statistics and
giving guidance on how to go solar.
Another recent addition to the solar cult is Navtej Matharu, VP, IT,
Infovision. His reasons for solar were quite different and quite the same like
those of Mahindra Finance and Bank of India. As Infovision is a leading BPO
company in India, Matharus biggest challenge is to power his company round the
clock. Not only this, Matharu has also taken up the challenge of reducing the
power bill of the company by close to 35-40% through various means. So, when
Infovision decided to construct a new center in Narnia, Haryana, he decided to
look at alternative means like solar power as well. After much research and
investigation, Matharu called in Sharp and started working out towards a
solution with them.
 
The biggest hindrance in going solar is the huge cost involved at the onset.
It is a bitter pill to swallow, but once that is through, there are immense
paybacks that accrue from the same. For us, solar power is part of our overall
drive to be more productive, and also the fact that we are in some way helping
the environment by going clean. It is win-win deal, he says.
Challenges and Opportunities
Indeed, like Matharu puts it, the biggest hindrance at the moment are the
initial costs. Depending on the size and the quality of the systems involved, it
could easily run into a few million Rupees. Currently there are two companies,
Tata-BP and Sharp, that are able to provide complete solutions for solar energy.
Of the two, Matharu vouches for Sharp, They are more open to suggestions and
keen to innovate depending on the requirements, he states.
One of the most common uses of solar power can be seen in terms of solar
water heaters, often found in hotels. But there are a variety of ways in which
it can be utilized. India being a tropical nation, except for the 2-3 months of
monsoon, recieves uninterrupted power supply almost round the year. The best
part is that the cities that are truly in a power crisis, like Bangalore,
Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, are best suited for solar solutions, given their
geographic location. Like in Europe and the US, one sees the wind farms;
similarly, there could be scores of such solar farms in India, powering the
companies.
While, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has initiated schemes
and incentives like subsidy, soft loan, confessional duty on raw material
imports, excise duty exemption on certain devices/systems, etc, to boost the
production and use of solar energy systems; there is a lot more that needs to be
done. For instance, in 1996 Amoco/Enron Solar Power Development planned to build
a 50 MW solar photovoltaic plant in the Thar desert near Jaisalmer in Rajasthan.
Two other projects were proposed as well, one a 50 MW photovoltaic plant and the
other a 200 MW solar chimney. None of these have been completed.
There needs to be a massive investment in R&D for the development of
solutions that are best suited for the Indian climate. While some initiatives
have been undertaken by the IITs in India, they have been few and far between.
While the government of India has been talking about power security through
atomic power, et al, there is little attention paid to the most potent way to
clean power generation, namely solar power.
But among the few times that the government has showed interest, it has
really worked. SK Sehgal, GM, IT, talks of one such initiative by the Himachal
Pradesh Government to promote solar cookers by subsidizing them. These cookers
were very popular and one could see scores of households using these cookers,
imagine the kind of savings it must have resulted in and the positive ecological
impact, he says.
In the end, it all boils down to companies and individuals to take a lead,
and upon solar cult members like Shanmugham, Kalyansundar, Matharu to work out
solutions around solar energy. As Vishwajeet Singh, head, IT, Fcm Travels puts
it. Not only from the environment point of view, it is also beneficial from the
cost perspective. It is a rule that if you dont address a problem today, it
will force you to do it tomorrow. It is up to an organization to understand the
criticality today and give the opportunity to their IT team to build a Green IT
infrastructure, he adds.
Coming to think of it, we seem to be constantly looking at the past for
inspiration. The more we embrace modernity, the more past-like we become. It is
such a paradox, isnt it?
So like the ancient Indians, Egpytians, Greeks, Assyrians, and others, it is
time we bowed our head in reverence to the mighty sun god and lets ask him to
power our lives and help us solve the single largest challenge faced by mankind:
Climate Change.
Shashwat DC
shashwatc@cybermedia.co.in
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