Solar Panels India

Solar cooking systems are those devices that use the light from the sun as the energy source. The solar cooking systems use no fuel and since sunlight is free, they cost nothing. Their use helps to slow down desertification as well as deforestation as they save the wood used for cooking as fuel. Solar cooking systems often find their use in situations where fire risk and minimum fuel consumption are highly important.
The basic mechanism of solar cooking systems or solar cookers is:
• Some type of reflective surface such as a mirror or metal is used to concentrate sunlight and heat from the sun to a small area, so that energy becomes more potent.
• In order to convert the sun’s light into heat black and certain materials for pots are used. A black pan not only absorbs maximum sunlight but also converts it into heat, thus increasing the effectiveness of the heating system.
• A glass cover or a plastic bag kind of material which is a clear solid is used to trap the heat. Such material allows the light to enter but once it is absorbed it remains trapped inside. And this enables the cooker to maintain similar temperatures on cold days also as is possible on hot days.
• Plastic sheets are used to ensure that no liquids seep through the oven.

The solar cookers use a combination of these strategies to achieve temperatures required for cooking.
Dark pots containing food can be placed inside the solar cooker after removing the top. Also shiny metal reflectors are sometimes used to concentrate more light into the oven chamber. The inside bottom of the cooker and the food containers must necessarily be black or dark colored. Moreover the interiors of the cooker specially the inside walls should be reflective so that the light can be concentrated towards the dark bottom and also reflective surfaces will prevent radiative heat loss.
Many types of solar cooking systems are there, with over 65 designs and their many variations.

Box cookers
The top is transparent which is either glass that is difficult to work with but is durable or oven cooking bag which is either to work with and is lighter and cheaper but not that durable.
Although the solar box cooker is not able to achieve as high temperatures as the standard oven yet food can be cooked over a longer period of time than the standard oven. The temperature reaches around 150 °C (300 °F). The advantage is that food will not get burned even if left all day since the temperature never reaches too high. It can be especially useful for warming food and to pasteurize milk or water.
These are simple appliances that range from small devices made from cardboard suitable for a single meal to glass boxes and wood.
Panel cookers
These are very economical cookers that make use of shiny panels to concentrate sunlight into a cooking pot which is kept enclosed in a plastic bag. It is usually locally manufactured by using reflective material like aluminum foil and corrugated cardboard. It can be made with reclaimed materials like foil from cigarette boxes and used cardboard. It can reach low to moderate temperature enough to cook grains or pasteurize milk. On sunny days even meat, vegetables and rice can be cooked.

Solar kettles
These are solar thermal devices that can accumulate enough heat to boil water. They can accumulate as well as store solar energy and use evacuated solar glass tube technology. Since they can achieve temperature as high as 220 °C (425 °F), they are also used to deliver dry heat and function as autoclaves and ovens, besides heating liquids. Another advantage is that they only need diffused sunlight so don’t need sun tracking and also the heated water can remain hot through out the night also because of the vacuum insulating properties.

Parabolic cookers
These are the solar cookers that are as good as the conventional oven, however they are difficult to make. They can achieve high temperatures and can cook food quickly also. But they need supervision and frequent adjustment. The Parabolic reflectors in which the centers of mass and their focal points coincide, can easily be turned and follow motion of the sun in the sky. They can be used in a kitchen to produce 2,000 meals a day.

Hybrid cookers
As the name suggests it is a solar box cooker with a heating element so that the hybrid solar oven remains functional on cloudy days and at night also due to the heating element. Although they offer more independence but are not cost effective. They attain higher temperatures than solar box cookers and also take lesser time in cooking. In the absence of solar energy they use conventional energy sources.

Solar cooking systems use alternative energy that is accessible to majority of people. The solar cookers can easily be built in just a few hours from everyday materials. Solar cooking systems can be used to make everything that is made is conventional stove from rice, vegetables to meat and baked bread. Solar ovens are kept outside the house therefore they also prevent unwanted heat inside. Also the health damaging pollutants produced from conventional wood fired cooking stove like noxious fumes and carbon monoxide can be reduced by using solar cooking systems.
The food kept in solar cookers is usually cut in smaller pieces than otherwise as the smaller pieces cook faster. For simple cooking such as melting cheese or butter lid may not be used and the food can simply be kept in a bowl. The food in a solar cooker is usually not stirred unlike the conventional cooking on stove because firstly it is not required, secondly opening it will allow trapped heat to escape out thus slowing the process. Care should be taken that the shadow of buildings etc does not block the sunlight. The time required to cook usually depends on the amount of sunlight and the type of equipment used. Besides factors like latitude, air temperature etc may also effect. For most foods it is difficult to tell if the food is cooked by merely looking at the final product. Unlike food cooked from conventional cooking methods, there is no smoky flavor in the solar cooked food.

India’s total capacity to produce energy is around 124,000MW. 60% of this is coming from coal, 25% from hydro power and the remaining from other sources. It is estimated that India will have sudden shortage of 70,000MW in near future. Power produced by coal leads to various environmental risks and that from hydro results in soil erosion, degradation etc. So Indian Government has put generation of power by renewable resources on its main agenda now. There is increased demand for solar energy in India, companies are generating profits so it is expected that the solar panels cost in India will go down in future.
The only problem with solar power is that it is slightly more expensive than conventional sources of energy. This is because the process of making a PV solar cell is complicated and delicate. The semi conductor used in PV cell is silicon which has complicated production procedure so scientists are looking into other semi conductors like amorphous silicon and cadmium telluride (CdTe) for the same purpose. The price of solar panel in India is between Rs 90- Rs 130 per watt. The solar energy is measured in price per Watt Peak (Wp). The prices for high power usage solar panels has come down from Rs 1200 per Wp in 1982 to Rs 200 per Wp today and is further expected to fall in recent times due to new technologies coming up.

For having solar panel system installed you are required to own a house as would not like to install it in a rented house. Installation of panel depends on various factors like the angle of your roof, the climate of your area, electrical use, shade you are having etc.
Researchers and environmentalists in India are encouraging different financial institutions in country to make finances available to homeowners who want to harness the power of solar energy. Government is also in process to provide incentives to homeowners to set up PV cell panels. Main cost in solar energy setup for homeowners is that of buying and installing the panels. However there is little maintenance cost also involved but in comparison to the benefits from solar energy it is negligible. According a global survey the prices of solar panels have declined at the rate of 4% per year.

The exact figure of solar panel array needed can be reached by multiplying your daily electrical usage in KwH by 0.25 and you will get approximate size of your solar panel array in KW. The extra energy you produce can also be sold back to the company by a process called Net Metering. In this process if a consumer has solar panel system installed at home that is connected to utility grid. Then the surplus energy can be redirected back into the utility grid and consumers meter moves backward. Both residences and small scale enterprises have a KWH meter installed which moves backward and forward according to the need of consumer. Following Net Metering the meter moves forward when there is requirement of energy and backward when there is surplus energy. For example if your energy need is high during morning and evening and almost negligible during the day because you are at work then what happens to energy produced by solar panels during that time. The energy is sold to utility grid company for their use.
In July 2009 India proposed a $19 billion plan to produce 20 GW of solar energy by the year 2020.According to this plan solar equipments would be installed in all Government buildings including hospitals and hotels. In November 2009, it was decided that India would produce 1,000MW of solar power by 2013 under its National Action Plan on climate change. The ministry of new and renewable energy (The MNRE) has decided to initiate various subsidies and tax rebates, soft loans, excise duty exemptions on some devices and concessional duty on raw material imports etc as the major steps towards increasing use of renewable sources.

Thus we conclude that due to new technical developments the price of PV cells are declining and hence resulting in rising use of solar energy in India.

The energy produced by sun which is utilized by us is termed as solar energy. Enormous amount of energy is radiated by sun every day. The sun produces this energy from within itself. Just like other stars sun is a huge ball made of hydrogen and helium and in its inner core there is a process going on for producing energy called nuclear fusion. Only a little part of total energy that sun produces reaches earth but this amount is enough to fulfil all our energy needs. It takes 8 minutes for sun’s energy to reach earth from a distance of 93 million miles. Capturing sunlight for fulfilling our energy needs is not an easy task as it is spread on vast area of earth so we have to collect it properly and use various techniques to make it useful.

The amount of sunlight that an area receives depends on various factors like time of day, distance from equator, season of year and clouds in sky etc. A solar collector is a device which can collect solar energy for example a closed car in which heat rays are coming in through windows but that heat is being absorbed by various things present in the car so it is not able to escape. Similarly black color solar collectors are present on rooftop of house and water is allowed to pass through them and its warmed by the collector and used for household purpose.

We can produce electricity also through sunlight. There are two ways to produce solar electricity one is using photovoltaic and another is solar thermal systems. Photovoltaic is made up of two words photo and voltaic meaning electricity produced by light. There are solar cells or PV cells that produce electricity for example cells used in calculators and solar powered toys etc. These cells are made up of a substance called silicon. This is second most common substance on earth. When sunlight falls on these cells there is some movement of electrons which results in production of electricity. Maintenance of these cells is almost negligible. In solar thermal systems mirrors are focused on some water source and steam is generated and electricity is generated through that steam in a similar way in which coal plants produce electricity.

Number of solar cells can be connected together on one support system and are called photovoltaic module. Electricity or current produced is directly dependent on sunlight that a module receives. Several modules can be further connected to form and an array. Modules can be connected in series or in parallel to produce any current or voltage combination.

Though India is blessed with abundant sunlight due to its vast arid areas, India is yet to utilise the maximum benefits of this free and environment friendly energy resource. In India we are still dependent on fossil fuels for power generation which are fast depleting. It is said that coal reserve of India would only last for next 20 years so there is big need to harness clean, reliable and viable energy resources. The cost of solar panel system has gone down drastically in last 2 decades and is expected to go down further in coming years. Using solar energy will make India self dependent and pollution free nation.

Since India has many isolated rural areas which are not connected to conventional sources of energy, it would be more cost efficient to use solar energy to light up those areas. Considering the current growth pace of solar energy in India which is 20 percent, India could emerge as 4^th largest nation in solar energy consumption after Germany, Japan and China in coming year s.

Hence we conclude that advantages of solar energy are too great to be ignored and there is an urgent need to turn towards solar energy in coming years.