The Hindu Business Line : The power of the sun is ready to be tapped

I would put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait till oil and coal run out before we tackle that.

- Thomas Edison

That is a telling comment from the inventor of the light bulb, from the early part of the 20th century. Global warming, caused primarily by carbon dioxide let out by burning oil and coal, has driven the world in search of alternative sources of energy, and the most promising of them all is solar.

In India, several companies have committed investments into making photovoltaic modules.

Among them are Signet Solar ($500 million), Titan Energy (which expects to invest $750 million), Solar Semiconductor ($1 billion), Moser Baer, Chandradeep Solar, Photon Energy Systems and Ram Terra Solar.

Harnessing power

What exactly does power generated from solar energy mean to us? A few nuggets here:

The earth receives more energy from the sun in one hour than the world uses in a whole year.

When harnessed, energy from the Sun could provide us power which is 10,000 times the current demand.

By 2011, (experts expect) solar power will cost about 10 cents (Rs 4) a unit, or about the same as conventional power.

Electricity is measured in kilowatt hours. One kilowatt hour (kWh) is the amount of electricity required to burn a 100 watt light bulb for 10 hours.

A 1 kWh home solar system would generate approximate approximately 1,600 kilowatt hours per year (in a sunny climate).

The solar photovoltaic is a $10-billion industry, growing at 40 per cent per year. From a 1.7 GigaWatts global demand in 2006, it is expected to rise to about 8 GW in 2010.

Solar power generated from a 1 kWh system each month prevents 150 lbs (or about 68 kg) of coal from being mined; prevents 300 lb (136 kg) of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere; and saves 105 gallons (477 litres) of water from being used.

Source: Signet Solar

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