Despite an ambitious rural electrification programme, some 400 million Indians lose electricity access during blackouts. While 80 per cent of Indian villages have at least one electricity line, only 44 per cent of rural households have access to electricity.
These views were expressed by PC Pant, director, ministry of new and renewable energy, at a two-day seminar on ‘Green Energy & ICT Solar Energy Empowerment of Rural India’. The seminar was organized by the Indian Institute of Information Technology at its extension campus — Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Information Technology, Amethi on Saturday.
Speaking on ‘Rural electrification — Integrating various supply options’, Pant said the demand for energy has grown at an average of 3.6 per cent per annum over the past 30 years. The installed power generation capacity of India stood at 1, 56,092.23 MW while the per capita power consumption stood at 612 kWH, he said. According to a sample of 97,882 households in 2002, electricity was the main source of lighting for 53 per cent rural households compared to 36 per cent in 1993, Pant added.
He said the Central government has envisaged an ambitious mission of power for all by 2012. For this the installed generation capacity should be at least 200,000 MW by 2012 from the present level of 144,564.97 MW. Power requirement will double by 2020 to 400,000 MW.
PK Pattanaik, chairman, Aryavart Gramin Bank, while speaking on ‘Building a sustainable energy future for India’, said his bank started working on this concept to bring light to the lives of 14.86 million villagers residing in 8542 villages in its area of operation covering 6 districts (Area 20396 sq km) in Uttar Pradesh.
GN Pandey of IIIT-A said the renewable energy sector in the country is still undeveloped. “India was the first country in the world to set up a ministry of non-conventional energy resources in early 1980s. However, its success has been very spotty. In recent years India has been lagging behind other nations in the use of renewable energy. The share of renewable energy in the energy sector is 10.63% of total generation capacity of India,” he said.
Amitabh Verma, vice president-Technology, Solar Power Business Design, said solar power plant was the key to profitability. Solar installation has to last for 25 years and negligence in component selection and design may hurt in the future.
NK Srivastava from Telecom Engineering Centre addressed various issues pertaining to use of solar energy in BTS and others.
