India is already making rapid strides in the arena of renewable energy and it plans to attain a target of 175GW by 2022. The target is an ambitious one but a lot of spade work is being done in key areas like solar and wind energy across the nation to meet this aim.
The mega shift to renewable energy is essential for India because it needs to cut down on harmful emissions in a time bound manner after it ratified the COP21 Paris climate agreement earlier this year. While it is not possible to completely weed out coal based power generation, a bigger share of renewable power in the overall energy matrix will surely help put a curb on industrial pollution that has now reached alarming proportion in several cities.
With India at the cusp of a technology led transformation, the use of latest cutting edge technological solutions is likely to get a boost across the economy as consumers and customers seek better quality of products and services and faster turnaround along with minimal damage to the environment. This is expected to hold true for energy sector as well, where renewable energy will play a crucial role and bring down carbon footprint in the nation. As India seeks greater transparency in its financial transactions with first steps towards cashless economy and digitalization after demonetization, a similar revolution is the need of the hour in the energy sector, which will trigger a steady decline in dependence on fossil fuels and shifts consumers to sources of renewable energy.
Among the renewable options available on the table, solar energy is most suited for India since large part of the country get abundant sunshine round the year. In fact, solar energy is already emerging as a popular source of reliable and clean alternative to fossil fuels, whether it is for powering street lights or cooking large quantities of food. With a potential of around 5-7kWh/m2/day, solar energy has become a significant contributor to lower emissions and is leading the growth of India’s renewable energy basket.
Concentrating Solar Technology or CST based heating systems have emerged as one of the most popular and cost efficient methods for powering the kitchen. It is one of the cleanest and most hygienic forms to prepare food, especially when food is being prepared for a large number of people. In fact, such has been the success that about 10 lakh meals -2 time a day, in certain cases even 3-4 times a day, are being cooked in several institutions in the country using CST.
The idea for institutional cooking using solar energy in India germinated in the early 1990s. And by 1995, the Brahma Kumaris Gyan Sarovar Centre in Mount Abu (Rajasthan) had a CST set up for bulk cooking.
The set up at Gyan Sarovar includes 24 Solar Concentrators capable of generating 600kg steam per day and is being today even to cook approximately 2000 meals. The center is able to save about 8,000 kg of lPG annually, thereby ensuring a cleaner and greener future.
CST set up at the Sri Saibaba Sansthan Trust, Shirdi is one of the most prestigious systems of the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) for community cooking. Everyday about 30,000 Sai devotees take meal as prasad. During the time of vacation and festivals, the number of Sai devotees hike up to 55,000 making it the world’s largest solar steam system for cooking food for pilgrims visiting the shrine.
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee, is another example; all nine messes at the institute are using solar energy for steam cooking for the past two years which provide three meals to about 8,000 students daily and has allowed the university to do away with the use of around 5,000 lPG cylinders in a year, thereby translating into significant cash savings of about Rs 30 lakh per annum.
Some of the various other institutes supported by the Ministry include Ramakrishna Mission Chennai, which serves food to around 700 orphan students four times a day, Sathyabama University catering to 15,000 students every day, and also in University of Rajasthan, NIT Hamirpur, MNIT Jaipur, NTPC Dadri, Kaligdhar Trust. R K Mission, Chennai even cooking food early morning at 4-5 AM due to having a heat storage system.
“Renewable energy and solar energy in particular, is the future because it is both reliable and clean. We are aggressively pushing for the use of CST in key installations across the nation because it will not only help us bring down the use of fossil fuels and a result, cut down on our carbon footprint but it will also ensure that we make a steady and gradual shift towards cleaner energy sources,” said Dr RP Goswami, Director/ Scientist F in the Ministry.
It is interesting to note that while globally CST is being largely used only for power generation, the technology has been put to innovative use in the country and has wide scale application from sectors like automobile, education, chemical, pharmaceutical, hotels, hospitals, manufacturing, laundry etc. Further, the CST led systems are increasingly being adopted by kitchens of big educational institutes, religious places/ashrams, large hotels, and even some of our Para-military installations.
Over 140 systems covering dish area of about 28,000 sq m. have been supported by the Ministry so far community cooking. Apart from cooking, various other application of CST includes are air-conditioning, water heating, laundry, paint drying, distillation and evaporation, component washing, de-greasing, metal treatment, and many more. The number of installations has increased many folds during last 3-4 years due to initiatives taken under a UNDP-GEF project of Ministry in implementation since April 2012 added Dr A K Singhal, National Project Manager.
Those interested to know how their organisation can also benefit from this clean, green and cost saving energy source can contact their respective State Nodal Agency in State capitals or log on to www.mnre.gov.in or call Toll Free 18002334477 for more details.