Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) on Wednesday unveiled its patented indigenous solar cook top, Surya Nutan, developed by the oil refiner’s Faridabad R&D centre

The product was demonstrated in the presence of the Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas (MoPNG) HS Puri; Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Minister Giriraj Singh; Minister of State (MoS) for Commerce & Industry Som Prakash; MoS for Housing & Urban Affairs Kaushal Kishore, and Minister of Finance and Parliamentary Affairs of Uttar Pradesh Suresh Khanna.

“Surya Nutan will aid in reducing India’s CO2 emissions drastically and keep our citizens insulated from the vagaries of the high international fossil fuel prices,” Puri said .

The solar cook top is a stationary, rechargeable and kitchen-connected indoor solar cooking system. It offers an online cooking mode while charging

Hybrid mode

Surya Nutan works in hybrid mode, which means it can run on both solar and auxiliary energy sources simultaneously. The insulation design of the solar cook top minimises radiative and conductive heat losses.

The initial cost of the product was ₹12,000 for the base model and ₹23,000 for the top model. However, the cost is expected to reduce substantially with economies of scale.

At present, pilot projects are being held in around 60 places such as Leh (Ladakh) to ascertain various operational and commercial aspects related with its application.

“Surya Nutan follows steps taken by the Ministry in the current global energy crisis, including increasing ethanol blending to 20 per cent, increasing procurement price of Compressed Bio-Gas under SATAT Scheme from ₹45 per kg to ₹54 a kg, drastically increasing the area under Exploration and Production to 15 per cent of geographical area from current 7-8 per cent and aggressively pursuing green hydrogen mission in refineries,” the MoPNG said.

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