Solar energy can fuel India's economic growth

Mumbai, Dec 3: At a time when the Indian economy is doing well, energy will continue to be a critical issue to maintain this growth trend in future.

Solar energy is the one vital factor to achieve sustainable growth of around 7-8 per cent for the country for the next over three decades, as predicted by the agencies like World Bank, Standard&Poor's and Goldman Sachs.

Presently, efficiency of solar energy system available are in the range of 15-20 per cent. But in case of solar power satellites, efficiency could go up three-fold at around 50 per cent. Keeping this in view, '' The Space Island Group will begin delivering clean, safe and constant electricity to the cities and rural areas of India and China'', said Pranava R Mehta, Director (India Operations) Space Island Group Inc. He had made his presentation on the topic during a seminar on Energy Integration which was recently held here by FICCI and Energy Techonologies Forum.

These power plants in space are called solar power satellites or simply 'Solar Sats'. They were first designed by NASA some 30 years ago. Their job is to convert sunlight into electricity and then into a weak micro signal similar to those used by mobile phones. The signals are sent down to large or small receiving antennas anywhere on earth at an altitude of 22000 miles. The antennas convert the signals back into electricity and feed it into standard power grids.

Solar Sat signal beams can be sent directly down to the earth, he said.

The advantages of this system are that no ground based power plant or power lines nor fossil or nuclear fuel nor even fuel pipelines or roads are needed to bring this new electricity to every household or factory in the country. The electricity thus generated produces no air or ground pollution, no global warming gases and even no radioactive waste, he said.

UNI