Minister urges for installing of solar water heaters

Bangalore, July 20 (UNI) Union Minister of State for New and Renewable Energy Vilas Muttemwar today appealed to the states that had not moved to make installation of solar water heaters mandatory in new buildings.

Speaking at a conference on solar energy here he said due to his Ministry's efforts 15 state governments had issued guidelines to the local bodies in this regard. They had offered rebates in house tax for those who installed solar water heaters," he said.

The Ministry would continue to provide a one-time grant to such municipalities or corporations as the buildings consumed large amount of energy, he said.

"If the buildings are designed based on solar architecture, substantial conservation of electricity could be achieved," he said.

Solar photovotltaic (PV) was another technology that had the potential to produce electricity at watt to mega watt level. It was ideally suited for providing electricity for small loads of lighting, pumping and other applications in rural and remote areas.

This system was highly reliable and popular among the rural population but the biggest constraint with pv was its high cost.

This needs to be brought down, he said.

Aiming to reduce the cost of pv systems, the ministry had been providing fiscal and financial incentives to make solar energy vibrant so that it could help sustain economic growth, he said.

The pv industry had been facing crunch of silicon wafers and solar cells and it was high time that India become independent in production of polysilicon and wafers to meet the requirement of pv industry.

UNI