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Pushing Solar Power usage - ideas to take to KREDL, BESCOM
Written By silkboard - 16 May, 2012
Bangalore BESCOM Renewable Energy Power Supply suggestion Solar Power KREDL
Through our personal experiences here, and after hearing from a few professionals and tech guys in the field, we have some understanding of hurdles and possibilities here, on increasing adoption of Solar Power. Are govt agencies doing enough to 1) promote this as "green" power, 2) use Solar as a way to fill the supply shortage? We don't know. Should govt agencies only do all this promotion? Probably yes, because of the cost and policy angles involved.
What could be done then to promote adoption? Read up (Germany prime example) and there is a lot of information. But for us, in Bangalore, following should help
- Publishing well packaged information and solutions so that everyone can at least get to know the options and costs here.
- Developing some govt buildings as "samples", and publish all details on them would also help (Vikas Soudha has it, I think high court too. Why not more govt buildings?)
- To tide over the high upfront cost of the full system, starting some financing schemes will help. Few exist, but how many of us know about them? Instead of or on top of limited subsidy, or power byu back schemes, think of 2% interest, 5 year period scheme to fund Solar purchases?
- Encourage adoption of DC power based devices, to reduce reliance on storage (aka battery) as much as possible
- Organize a huge event, primary target - community dwellers, to unleash all of above, and demo systems on them, all together under one hall? Solar equipment makers will be more than happy to fund such event.
More ideas please!. We WILL go meet KREDL and BECOM for sure. We as Praja, part timers, are best suited to spend our civic time "pushing" for things. And this one seems like a perfect opportunity for doing that.
One other thing we can do is, publish some citizen-sourced whitepaperresearch paper on what it takes to go solar for a home. If we can put sanjay's gyaan, my own experience with system/subsidy, IDS/Anithasunil's lessons from ongoing search in a nice booklet, do you think such material will be a handy tool to have as we go around nd start meeting "people" to push for this?
cheers,
SB aka Pranav
PS: The "green" aspect of Solar energy gets muddied by these batteries. Publishing a summary of existing research that provides a picture of the battery aspect will also help.
COMMENTS
What is KREDL and BESCOM doing about solar power?
sanjayv - 17 May, 2012 - 14:25
This exercise sounds good. I know BESCOM, KREDL and KPTCL are doing something about solar power. It would be nice if we can get some idea of what they are already doing. If I am correct, there is an application filed with KERC on net metering. Has BESCOM done a study on this? What have they concluded? That for one, would be something we should be very interested in knowing about. Could Manu sir point us to any data?
One thing is clear. With our current energy consumption in a modern home, there is no way solar power installed on the roof can run all that (IDS - I have your excel file and will eventually get to it ... just a bit tied up now). So unless one is willing to drastically downsize grid power is required.
The trick is to come up with solutions that are win-win for all Consumers, BESCOM and the state. Not sure if I have a clear vision for that yet. However, discussions will lead us there :-)
silkboard - 17 May, 2012 - 18:21
Yes, from what we all know, seems like Solar is here to supplement. But community pooled local DC grid, or some way for people to join in their roof space to make a larger pool of panels - such ideas might just make the off grid thing a possibility.
Regrdless, its in BESCOM's interest. They could see this as a source of revenue
- Why not sell solutions yourself, make some money by sellig solar systems to your existing consumer base. I would buy from BESCOM, why not.
- BESCOM is a power supplier, who says they can't supply solar power? I am imagining BESCOM renting roof space all around to build a city wide solar grid
- KREDL - financing options to help take the upfront cost would certainly help
- KREDL again - everyone needs to know MORE and MORE about Solar (or Wind) options.
- KREDL or BESCOM - subsidy on top of MNRE one to push for Solar at remote locations
- Scheme to promote usage of low power devices so tat Solar can cover larger percentage of domestic needs. DC lighting and fans, lower power better quality pump sets, Power rting scheme - so that any device whose initial startup surge is less than say 750W gets marked as "Solar Ready"
Have to read around a bit more.
@Anithasunil - good idea there
silkboard - 18 May, 2012 - 21:15
Hey, can we shorthand you to just AS, saves a few key strokes :)
Sorry - missed noting your idea of giving more FAR to developers if they build for/with roof top solar. Just like they have done with rain water harvesting, some push from BBMP/BDA side, like
- more FAR if you go rooftop solar
- 5% discount on property tax if you have 1Kw or better solar at home
- 10% discount on property tax if your community (e.g. apartment complext) has Solar supplementing grid.
silkboard - 18 May, 2012 - 21:21
Another through, wild one. What if we get BESCOM to do a mass-procurement of 1Kw Solar systems, and get good bulk discounts.
- We set ourselve a goal of say 20000 sign-ups.
- We can canvas with our own apartment communities or neighbours, sign them up
- BESCOM starts mass procurement as soon as we hit the 20K number or better.
But we will need some material (brochures, FAQs etc) to help each other canvas around and sign up people.
And even at very aggressive 20 sign-ups per person, we will need 1000 volunteers for this "mass Solar @ Bangalore" campaign.
The 1000 volunteers will of course get deeply discounted Solar unit for their use (say 30% more on top of MNRE subsidy), that will make it a good deal for them :)
Anithasunil - 17 May, 2012 - 09:56
How about doing a rough cost analysis, with existing information first? Assume usage patterns, DG set usuage etc, and come with rough numbers, to convince ourself, whether it makes sense, and to understand the target numbers (interest rates to sustain the sector etc), when we talk about the options mentioned above, to stakeholders
I read abt the loan for Solar power generation from Gramin bank.. Not sure if the scheme was for all over india.. Again, not sure if it is continuing.. The window might be over!
And about the adoption of DC based services, I am not sure about the extend to which it can help.. It remains a fact the the household consumption of power is mostly in the evenings, and Solar power is available during the day. So, some storage cannot be avoided!
We can design the system to use the solar power produced during the day to be used during the day, so as to minimize the storage. But, then, it would be a replacement for Grid power than for DG sets!
Again, storage to some limited quantity would make sense, since the DG sets operate at better efficiency, when they are on low load, and as the load increases, the convertion factor from diesel to electricity goes down..Rough estimates I have heard is one thrid the electric power produced, when the load goes up from 30% to 75%.
Also, unlike a household, an apartment pays for most of its electric power at the highest slab.
What I would like is to compute the tradeoffs between diesel cost, to solar power to grid power, under few typical scenarios.
I will work on writing up my experiences so far.
It seems that Silkboard has covered most ideas I have been thinking about. The low interest loans is one of my favourites. Am wondering if it is possible to offer other benefits to buildings that run on solar power - such as increased FAR. This might prompt builders in including it in the package!). They can pass on part of the cost to the owners since they benefit from lower maintenance costs ( rough estimate : one third of the maintanance cost in apartments seem to go towards bescom + diesel.) and recover part costs from the additional apartment units built.
Additional push to the solar market in this way, might help in bringing down the cost of the system!
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