Clean energy and Development

KOCHI: Availability of affordable and clean energy will become a decisive factor for the development of global economy, Hans Muller-Steinhagen, Director of the Institute of Technical Thermodynamics of German Aerospace Centre, has said. In his keynote address at the Indo-German dialogue on 'Accelerated Dissemination of Solar Energy Technologies in India' at the Rajagiri School of Engineering and Technology here recently, Prof. Muller said the world today relies mainly on relatively cheap gas and oil, a resource, which would become increasingly scarce in the next 20 to 40 years. He said solar energy represented an abundant source of energy, large enough to cover the whole future world energy demand without constraints. Fortunately, there was an excellent match between the availability of solar radiation resources in the fast growing economies in northern Africa, the Middle East, India and China, Prof. Muller said.
Stating that solar thermal plants used 100-3,000 times concentrated solar radiation to produce superheated steam or hot air, he said that cheap electricity was also the key to fresh (desalted) water, cooling and air-conditioning. This justified the worldwide research and development efforts combined with market penetration programmes in this area, Prof. Muller said. In his address, Bibek Bandyopadhyay, Adviser, Solar Thermal Programme, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, said the government was at present in the process of setting up enabling policy environment and regulatory framework to create favourable conditions for solar manufacturing capability and large-scale deployment. The large target was expected to bring down the cost and consequent rapid deployment of solar technologies in the country apart from intense research and development to be taken up indigenously and in collaboration with international research centres, Dr. Bandyopadhyay said.
Pointing out that the government had recently approved a new policy for development and promotion of solar energy through Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, he said the objective of the programme was to ensure country's energy security with environmental compatibility. It provided a policy framework for large-scale deployment and aggressive research and development for reducing the cost of solar power generation, Dr. Bandyopadhyay said. Some of the topics being discussed as part of the programme included advanced solar thermal technologies, state-of-the-art solar thermal technologies and solar thermal market. 

Staff Reporter from the page of THE HINDU newspaper.