Solar canals making use of India’s space smartly – Burning Issues – Free PDF Download

India’s energy mix

• India has relied heavily on coal-fired power plants which have generated 72% of the country’s electricity in 2018-19.

India’s solar potential

• India’s combination of abundant sunshine (about 300 sunny days in a year)  and a large energy-hungry population makes it an ideal location for solar.
• According to World Energy Outlook Report,  India has huge solar potential of around 750 GW..!!
• In light of this the GOI has already started many initiatives to ramp up Solar energy capacity.

Indian Solar Mission

• International Solar alliance  etc
• India’s solar capacity has reached 36.6GW at the end of the first quarter of 2020, with the aim of growing to 100GW by 2022.

Challenges

• To achieve the 100 GW target, India needs to invest around  $50 billion in the next three years.
• Technology & domestic manufacturing..!!
• Finding the right place..!!

Finding the right place..!!

• Solar farms need to cover large areas of land.
• Land is expensive in India and often has multiple owners with too many formalities.
• High population density also puts pressure on the land.
• Note:
• Rooftop solar panels are one solution, but sunny space atop buildings is limited too..!!

Solar canal potential

• In states like Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra canals are mainly used for irrigation.
• For instance, just the state of Gujarat has more than 80,000km of canals. Even if  30% of these canals are made, 180 GW of power could be produced, saving 90,000 acres of land.

Benefits of Solar canals

• Solar power plants can be built much faster than large coal or gas power stations.
• Reduces the evaporation losses from the canals.
• Water below solar panels helps the panels to remain cool, which increases their efficiency by at least 2.5-5%.
• Reduces emission and helps in INDCs.

Is everything so Perfect?

• Canal-top plants are more expensive to construct than normal solar plants.
• Supports have to be galvanised with a protective zinc layer.
• Dimensions of canals are different (Every project new plans).
• Meandering canals.
• Cleaning and maintenance.
• Environmental effect.

Latest Burning Issues | Free PDF

Sharing is caring!