CLEAN ENERGY

As a source of energy, nothing matches the sun. It out-powers anything that human technology could ever produce. Only a small fraction of the sun’s power output strikes the Earth, but even that provides 10,000 times as much as all the commercial energy that humans use on the planet.    Why Solar energy important? Already, the sun’s contribution to human energy needs is substantial — worldwide, solar electricity generation is a growing, multi-billion dollar industry. But solar’s share of the total energy market remains rather small, well below 1 percent of total energy consumption, compared with roughly 85 percent from oil, natural gas, and coal. Those fossil fuels cannot remain the dominant sources of energy forever. Whatever the precise timetable for their depletion, oil and gas supplies will not keep up with growing energy demands. Coal is available in abundance, but its use exacerbates air and water pollution problems, and coal contributes even more substant...

There is a large potential available for generating solar power using un-utilized space on rooftops and wastelands around buildings. Small quantities of power generated by each individual household, industrial building, commercial buildings or any other type of building can be used to partly fulfill the requirement of the building occupants and surplus, if any, can be fed into the grid. The distribution companies will allow power to feed into the grid and extending net metering facility to the consumers. In grid interactive rooftop or small SPV systems, the DC power generated from SPV   panel is converted to AC power using power conditioning unit and is fed to the grid. The generated power during the day time can be utilized fully by powering captive loads and excess power can be fed to the grid as long as grid is available. In case, where Solar Power is not sufficient due to cloud cover or during the night hours, the captive loads are served by drawing power from the gri...

  The Key parameter discussed during Solar PV power plant is Performance Ratio. Performance ratio” gives insights how efficient the available solar energy is converted into electrical energy. It is possible to compare the performance of various plants at different locations on a normalized – independent from climate conditions – level over a long period of time. Deviations in the PR (e.g. values below the expected range) indicate a possible fault or problem in the solar PV plant. PR can therefore be understood as an early warning system. PERFORMANCE RATIO(PR) of a plant for a period of Time = Energy measured(kWh)/(Irradiance(kWh/m2) on the panel x (Active area of PV module(m2)) x (PV module efficiency) Many of the report speak about more on capacity utilisation factors(CUF). Capacity Utilisation Factor(CUF) =Energy measured (kWh) / (365*24*installed capacity of the plant). So on one side, PR is a measure for the performance of a PV system taking into account envir...

National Solar mission going slow… The MNRE has released draft policy of phase 2 National solar mission on December 2012. The ministry conducted various consultative meetings with various stakeholder groups, hoping to be able to launch the program in February of this year. As of September, there is still no final policy document. In a related disappointment, as of February, the MNRE stopped accepting applications for the 30% subsidy it offered to all rooftop and off-grid power projects, too. And, it is not yet clear as to when this window will reopen. MNRE also stopped the new channel partner empanelment. The second phase of the National Solar Mission, which was targeted to achieve installations of almost 4 GW of solar power projects under a federal scheme, and 6 GWs under state schemes, has not yet taken off. The second phase of the solar mission surely will take a hit as its most critical component is viability gap funding - a direct subsidy to cover the cost of ...