Promote Solar Heating Technologies

Renewable energy is no longer an area of experimentation. Solar air conditioning and solar space cooling are some applications that have been commercially deployed in some places in the country. However, large-scale manufacturers still hesitate to get into solar thermal power generation. Talking of households, the financial payback period for solar water heaters is 5-6 years. However, industrial units using solar energy for process heating on larger scale can recover the cost in about 2 years of operation time.

Manufacturing sector is using more and more of solar power these days. In Indian conditions such systems could be operated for about 300 days a year and have a lifetime of 15 years. Though the investment was high, the payback period was less than two years, making them a lucrative investment in the long run. The only problem faced currently is the initial cost, which is prohibitive for some commercial setups, and for most of the households.

Government is requested to push for such projects at least for institutes, large campuses, housing projects, commercial establishments, manufacturing units, etc. where it has control on decision making. Wherever the deployment is in private hands, subsidies and regulations can be put in place to ensure maximum usage of the solar heating technology.