Solar power in Manipur

Er P Jadumani Singh *

10 KWp Solar Photovoltaic (SPV) power plant installed at Manipur University in Feb 2012 :: Pix - Huieyen Lanpao

In the list of power shortage or load shedding states in India, in the number one position is our state, Manipur, where there is power supply of six hours and nine hours on the alternate days in the period of 24 hours. It seems that state government has no democratic and rational policy on power sector. The comparative study of power received by the state vis-à-vis its demands shows that there is always insufficient power to meet the requirement of the genuine users(consumers).

Losses of power in transmission and distribution systems as well as in pilferages are also a big factors for the insufficient power in the state. Half of the quantum of power imported by the state from the outside source is received by the consumers due to the above reasons.In order to minimise the load shedding period, Manipur government has to issue an ORDINANCE which bans the sale of incandescent lamps in the whole areas of Manipur, stops the operation of workshops,industrial units and power connectors from 5 pm till next morning, authorises all shops to sell only Compact Fluorescent lamps(CFL), Light Emitting Diode (LED).

During the domestic lighting in the evening and night, only CFL of 10-15w and LED of 5-10w should be used and all the street lamps should be replaced by solar lighting. If the above method is practised sincerely, there will be most probably no load shedding and requirement power for the whole state in the evening and night will be around 50Mw whereas the government is telling the public that power rwquirement for the state is 170Mw(megawatt), which is correct on the present wrong policy.

United States of America has already adopted the use of LED and CFL some fifty years ago.How long and how far the people will wait for the moments when the situation of power supply makes the public joyfully smile in Manipur.

Apart from the power supply of Manipur government, we may switch over to the use of solar light which is never exhaustible. We can tap and retrieve power from the sun light for ensuring affordable, adequate and uninterrupted power supply to domestic and other consumers.

Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission(JNNSM) was launched by the Government of India as a major initiative to promote ecologically sustainable growth of power while addressing India's energy security challenges. The use of solar powered devices for domestic consumption have remained underutilized due to high unit cost.

Just to bring down the burden of cost on the individuals, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy(MNRE) has introduced a scheme for Solar Off-grid(Photovoltaic and thermal) to extend financial incentives to the individuals in the form of capital and interest subsidy on the loans availed from the financial institutions.

The capital subsidy and loan eligibility are 30% and 50% respectively of the actual scheme costThe scheme is executed under the overall supervision of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development.This scheme encourages replacement of non-renewable energy sources like fossil fuels, kerosene, and diesel with solar energy to meet the power requirements, especially for the domestic consumption with a backperiod of 10 hours daily.

Solar power is produced by collecting sunlight and converting it into electricity. This is done by using solar panels which are flat panels made up of many individual solar cells. It is generally required for areas where no government electricity is available.

In a classified way, solar power is the conversion of sunlight into electricity for various applications like home lighting,water heating,solar charged vehicles, solar ballons, water boats, industrial units etc, either directly using photovoltaics or indirectly using Concentrated solar power systems.

Photovoltaic is the device of solar panelswhich absorb sunlight and converts that light into electricity that we use for our home or for many applications. Concentrated solar power system uses lenses or mirrors and tracking systems to focus a large area of sunlight into a smaller beam.Commercial concentrated solar power plants were first developed in the 1980s.

The 354 Mw concentrated solar installation, located in the Mojave desert of California is the largest solar power plant in the world.150Mw solar power plant each at Solnava and Andanol, both in Spain are other stations produced under concentrated solar power system. 250 Mw Agua Caliente solar project in the United States and 221 Mw Charanka solar park in India are the word's largest photovoltaic power stations. Photovoltaic device can be appropriate method for home lighting in addition its expansionable scope of power production for electricity supply to the areas of a district or a small state.

The International Energy Agency said in 2011 that Solar power will increase countries' energy security through indigenous, inexhaustible and and import-independent resource, reduce pollution, lower the cost of production and keep fossil fuel prices lower. These advantages are global.

The earth receives 174 petwatts (174x1018 watts) of incoming solar radiation at the upper atmosphere. 30% of the it is reflected back to the space while the rest is absorbed by the clouds, oceans and land masses. The absorption of the solar radiation by earth's land furface, oceans and atmosphere raises their temperatures.Warm air containing evaporated water from the oceans rises, causing atmospheric circulation or convection.

When the air reaches a high altitude, where the temperature is low, water vapour condenses into clouds, which rain onto the earth's surface. The total solar energy absorbed by the earth's atmosphere, oceans and land masses is nearly 3,850,000 exajoules (10703x1018 kwh) per year. The electrical energies which can be harnessed from the wind and biomass are approximately 2250 exajoules(625x1015kwh) per year and 300 exajoules(8.3x1016kwh) per year respectively.

But till today this world has utilised nearly 1.6x1017kwh per year from the above three energy resources. The amount of solar energy reaching the surface of the earth is so vast that in one year it is about twice the quantity of the earth's non-renewable resources of coal, oil, natural gas and mined uranium combined.

The solar energy can be harnessed around the world depending on the distance from the equator. Green houses convert solar light into heat , enabling year- round production and growth( in enclosed environment) of specialty crops and other plants not naturally suited to the local climate. Primitive greenhouses were first used during Romance times to produce cucumbers year-round for the Roman emperors.