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"Solar energy only works in the daytime, and it can´t provide the reliable power we need."
Solar thermal power plants can store energy during daylight hours and generate power when it's needed. Apart from the Concentrated PV approach NewPowerIndia is also engaged in a parallel effort in Stirling engines. We plan to replace Turbines at the top of power towers with Stirling engines. This would potentially allow large bulky and less costly engines to be used in small modules of about 50KW each. These engines can be heated in the night with other fuels allowing it to be run in a hybrid fashion.
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"We would have to cover too much land with solar power plants."
Solar is one the most land-efficient sources of clean power we have, using a fraction of the area needed by hydro or wind projects of comparable output. All of India´s needs for electric power –night and day – can be generated with new power india's current technology using a square parcel of land 65 miles on a side. For comparison, this is less than 0.08% of India´s land area. Less land than currently in use for coal mines, resorviors occupying land area for hydel power generation and a tiny fraction of the land currently in agricultural use.
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"Solar is too small to help with climate change."
Today the electric power industry is growing in the India and worldwide while facing unprecedented changes in the regulatory environment. It has become clear that to preserve a climate similar to today´s, most human emissions of carbon dioxide will need to be eliminated by about 2050. Studies have shown that solar thermal power can, at very reasonable cost, eventually provide the majority of India´s electric power. One coal-fired power plant emits as much CO2 as 1 million cars, so replacing our electricity generation with renewables will have the greatest impact on climate change.
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Carbon Credits
Almost 90 countries of the world have already ratified the CDM mechanism of the Kyoto protocol wherein the developed nations will have to start paying the developing countries for their carbon reductions. In short this will lead to monetary benefits to all users of renewable energies. By replacing grid-supplied electricity, a one megawatt (1MW) array of Striling systems will remove 1,867 tons of carbon dioxide, 7 tons of nitrogen oxides and 11 tons of sulfur dioxide from the atmosphere annually.The carbon dioxide avoidance is equivalent to the burning of 190,476 gallons of gasoline or 8.6 rail cars of coal.
Under the global Carbon credits trade system, 11 Euros are paid for every ton of CO2 removed from the atmosphere. |