Solar Energy for India - Status, Potential and Impact

25-45It reviews the development of solar energy science and technology in India during last 40 y to a stage where India has one of the largest R&D and solar technology application program in the world touching every nook and corner of the country. Solar water heaters, box type cookers and home lighting systems using solar PV have become widely available at reasonable costs appropriate to them. Original lacunae of top down planning without participatory decision making of users, subsidy driven programs, lack of monitoring and preventive maintenance and non-application of the solar energy with a view to resource augmentation and equity, are now in the process of being eliminated. Emergence of considerations of pollution free clean development, global climate change and stress on creation of livelihoods vis-a-vis satisfaction of basic needs and requirements of quality in open marketing system rather than hands on indigenisation are the current stream in full force. The real solution will be somewhere in the middle for developing countries, where efficiency per unit cost of devices and systems and least capital cost of creating sustainable livelihoods will define the site specific recipes most effective to each situation. This has yet to happen. A technological shift has been from dreams of complete energy autonomy to hybridization and partial autonomy because, given the requirements of entrenched life styles in rich countries and aspirations of less developed countries, the former was economically not viable. Passive systems of building for climate tempering and solar PV integrated with buildings are taking shape now and will be the mainstream of immediate future. Also, briefly covered are the path breaking scientific advances of photochemical and microbial production of hydrogen, its storage and use in fuel cells which are in their initial stages, but are promising avenues. Since most of these technologies are proprietary, even at the risk of reinventing the wheel. India has to strike its own path. Direct solar, biomass based power generation and wind electric generation are immediate options; solar PV integrated with buildings along with hydrogen based fuel cells (hydrogen being generated from (wastes/sea water by solar energy) are the solution for the next decade. Considerations of energy equity, security and quality along with non-administered realistic tariffs of oil and electricity provided by conventional means will take care of the economic and ecological options sooner than we expect.