Solar- The Right Way
Renjini Liza Varghese
The growing demand for power has made many a companies to diversify into power generation. And some of them who have realised the potential of green energy segment are making big splash in the solar power business. One of such company is south India based Sujana Energy. A US $1.3 billion steel major ventured into power sector five years back with transmission towers, now is also active in solar power.
“India, in solar, till date was dependent on global technologies. This model has its own constrains. For a country like ours where every states has unique geographical features needs a technology which can be adapted in these regions. A different business model and different energy strategy, needs to be evolved” said Hari Kiran Chereddi, managing director, Sujana Energy Limited
Pointing out solar power sector is in nascent stages and to address the concerns of high cost of power generation using solar we need to concentrate on R&D. “The problem one faces when one takes on foreign firm as the technology partner then you are ruled by the whims and fancies of the tech partner. There are times when one is forced to scrap the tie- up and look for a more workable partnership. At this point, you end up loosing a lot of time.
But we have changed the business model all together. We have bought technologies, which failed to take off or were scrapped halfway through due to rising R&D costs in other countries and using our own R&D strength, we modified them and made these technologies suitable to our conditions.
Majority of the projects coming in solar are on the solar pv side, solar thermal may still take further time before it gets implemented. “With solar pv the main drawback is the scalability. There is high potential of innovation. And through innovation the prices can be brought down,” he added.
Solar parabolic though a tested technology but in Indian context, we have to understand that, intensity of sun is not an issue but availability of water is.
And in the regions where water is available the sun intensity is not adequate. Higher the height of mounting, the cost also goes up. Keeping in mind the cost factor and the risks involved, Sujana had taken the R&D to implementation level by replacing glass by aluminum plates. Normally it is large glass panels which are mounted 10 to 12 meters above the ground level.
“Sujana with its own technology combined with some measures like that of a) instead of glass started using highly polished aluminum coated with mirror film b) reduced the height of mounting of panels to 2- 4 meters above the ground, were able to bring in cost effectiveness. After the sun set the panel tilts upside down which decreases the cleaning efforts,” Chereddi explained. With the new panel the land required per Mw is reduced to four and a half acres against the five acre requirement and Sujana technology is is 30 per cent cheaper than the existing technology. “We are training the buyers on trouble shooting to address the concern of lack of post sale assistance,’ he added.
Going forward, Cherredi feels that a combination of solar thermal and biomass technology or hybrid solar will be more workable than a single technology in green energy spectrum.
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