INDIA LEADS THE WAY IN SOLAR POWER – FANTASY OR PREDICTION?
Chennai India 2012
It seems silly that when power from a monster nuclear fusion station a safe distance away is supplying non-polluting power in prodigal amounts—in the form of sunlight—people should be talking about power starvation.
The idea was Indian, and it was laughably simple, but it ushered in solar power in a massive way. The innovation was battery changing stations for electric powered cars similar to petrol filling stations. The power came from the sun. The trick was to place photovoltaic panels wherever one can place them, on uncultivable land, on hill sides, and in the town and cities on roof tops, every available free space in fact to recharge batteries. As sunlight falling on one square metre surface produces 1000 watts per day the amount of power available is prodigious. This is how it worked.
***
Mitran stood back and admired his new electric car, the Mira II. It was blunt nosed and had a humpy rear, but that did not matter—he liked her looks. So did the public. They called it the Crow Chick and went for it in such a big way that just months after its introduction it became the most popular car in the market. It was this car, and the ingenuity of the Indian entrepreneur that has put electric power in the roads of not just
Seethal, his wife came out of the house dressed in jeans and loose fitting T-shirt, the travel dress of South Indian middle class men and women. She opened the dickey door to check if her husband had loaded the two travel cases. She went round the car. It was tiny but a four door model. It deserved only two doors but two door cars have never succeeded in
Mitran locked the house door and pulled several times to reassure himself that he had indeed locked it. He then got in the drivers seat and with a flourish switched on the car. It started humming. The electric car moved noiselessly. He gently pressed the accelerator and it responded. They nimbly weaved their way through
The power for the car came from lead-acid batteries. Yes, the grand dad of all car batteries was still holding fort. But not quite the variety grand dad had used. This one was based on AGM cells (Absorbed Glass Mat), has lead-tin alloy deposited on light weight open pore substrates. The battery is 50% lighter and 60% more efficient than the battery grand dad used. It is factory sealed and needs little maintenance. It is much cheaper compared to the lithium ion battery preferred by foreign makers of electric cars, and surges power when needed. Weight was still a factor for two heavy units were necessary if the car was to get 70 kilometres from one charge. But the manufacturers made virtue of this necessity. They placed the batteries at the base which made the very light car stable on the pot-holed Indian roads. .
They had hardly passed the Koyambedu market when Sheetal lent over her husband to look at the dials.
"What are you doing," he said rather annoyed at the disturbance she was causing.
"Checking the battery," she said.
"They are OK. We change batteries after fifty kilometres though we have enough to go for the 70."
The Indian innovation was the battery changing stations. Before this battery recharging was by outlets in home or in parking places. It took time as anyone who has charged cell phones and iPods knows. The changing station charged batteries with solar power from panels set in surrounding fields and house tops. At any moment they had rows of charged batteries on their shelves ready to be fitted into cars. It took less time to change batteries than it took for filling the tank.
“The papers say that every bit of spare space around is taken up for solar panels,” said Seethal, “but I don’t see many.
“They lie hidden. If seen from the roads they will be subject to tax.”
At Poonamalee by-pass road they passed a battery changing station. Paddy fields, green and lush, now bordered the road. On the roofs of many houses they saw solar panels to provide power to the homes. Oil starved
"How many kilometres s till we come to the next changing station Mitru," asked his wife.
"Nervous aren't you," said Mitran. "See the drive plan I got from AASI." Seethal pulled it out of the glove box and spread it out of her thighs and read.
"There's one every fifteen kilometres,” said Mitran. “We can miss three changing stations with impunity.”
The next battery station was on the outskirts of the small town of
"What do they do with our dead batteries," asked Seethal.
"Charge them of course and fit them into other vehicles."
"Our car came with two brand new batteries. Now we have used ones. How is that?"
"Simple Seethu, the batteries that come with cars are not the property of the owners. They are part of the battery pool."
"Who then pays for batteries that need replacement?"
"We of course. And this is another neat device. We do not pay up front. The price of the new set of batteries is included in every battery change bill. It is by giving thought to such trivial matters that battery power for cars has become so popular. It is a tiny amount. Just a few pysae.”
“What is that board called Lion?” asked his wife. Mitran laughed.
“It is not Lion. It is Li ion, lithium ion. That is another type of battery.”
“Better than ours?”
“Very much so?”
“How much?’
“Well we may reach
“How expensive?”
“The battery would cost as much as the car.”
“Ho!”
“But when we can afford we can change over without altering a single screw in our car.”
Seethal had a question. “Sunlight has always been with us. Lead acid batteries and solar panels are not new either. Why had we to wait for electric cars for so long?”
“Good question Seethal. As long as petrol prices were low no one bothered. Now that world supply of oil is going down they have woken up. Scientists are busy in solar cell research. We now have better and cheaper photovoltaic cells, the working part of the panels that extract electricity from sunlight.”
“You mean the silicon thing.”
“Yes, we have much cheaper and better substances than silicon now.”
“How can anything be cheaper than sand?”
“Separating pure silicon from sand is very expensive. Silicon has to produce electricity for two years to make up the energy that went to separate it from sand. Two years Seethal. Now we use conductive polymers laced with nano quantities of semiconductor.”
“What is nano?”
“A millionth of anything is nano. Silicon is 16% efficient in freeing electrons from photons, which is sunlight. First alternative of silicon to appear was the bucky balls. These are nano amounts of carbon in conductive polymers. This is 8 times cheaper than silicon based converters, but only 5% efficient as against the 16% efficiency of silicon. Then came several improvements in these organic solar cells. The current efficiency is close to 60%. The magic word now is CIGS, copper, indium, gallium, selenide. The day is not far off when the house owner can paint the material on the roof of his home and connect.”
“How frequently have these panels to be replaced?”
“Once in twenty years or may be twenty five. No one knows because those installed are still working. The chances are that the replacements when needed will be far more advanced and cheaper too. The dramatic fall in prices of these units is what has made them popular.”
The car purred along. The temples of Kanchipurum were visible but the highway bypassed that famous silk weaving centre.
“Seethu.”
“Yes.”
"I thought you were sleeping."
"I tried but I am not able to in this small cramped space. Our speed is not much to speak of and we have to stop every fifty kilometres to get batteries changed. Why then do we go in for electric cars?"
"They are cheaper to run. It cuts the fuel bill by a fifth. And more important our oil imports have gone down drastically. We do have to import oil for container trucks, and long distance buses and diesel trains but that is less than half of what we had to import before this solar power revolution came on. You must remember that oil is getting scarcer and scarcer, and consequently oil prices will go higher and higher whereas sun power would forever remain free. And all this is pollution free. No green houses gases and no soot."
"We may have problems in the rainy season though." said Sheetal.
"We have enough sunshine even in those seasons. Cloudy skies do not matter but if there is a depression in the bay and the thick rain clouds blot out the sun battery stations have to use diesel motors charge the batteries. These stations have provision for that."
They changed batteries in Kaveripakkam. Sheetal once again tried to compose herself for a snooze and again she failed. She thought it was better to keep awake by taking coffee.
"Please Mitru stop under some trees. It's coffee time." Mitran found a huge banyan tree under which he stopped. They got out. Sheetal took out a flask and poured coffee for him and then for herself. Mitran drank his share in one gulp. He went to the car and took out his binoculars from the glove box. He intently scanned the horizon turning a full circle while doing so.
"Nineteen," he said.
"Nineteen what?" asked his wife.
"This is an isolated rural spot with few houses scattered about. But from here I was able to count nineteen houses with solar panels. Solar energy has really caught our fancy."
"How much does it cost to install one?"
"About Rs. 18000 for two 2 metres by 1-1/2 metres photo cell panels, two batteries similar to what we have in our cars, plus installation charges including labour and one year free maintenance. That is the only expense for three years when one has to replace batteries at Rs. 6000 a pair."
"I wish you were in the business of selling and installing this equipment," said Seethal going off in at tangent womanlike.
"Do you know how many firms there are in
"I have not the faintest idea"
"Guess. Five, ten, twenty?"
"You have to tell me."
"Five hundred and seventy six is the latest count. No Seethal it cannot be that good a business. Too much cut throat competition."
"In the city probably, but I am not sure about these rural areas. As for cutthroat competition what of it? We can cut throats too, can't we?" Her voice was shrill with energy. Once on this topic Mitran knew there was no stopping his wife. She was not happy about Mitran electrical good store. She has wanted him to be more adventurous but he was continuing the business he had inherited from his father.
‘You must makes things happen, Mitru,' she often said, 'goodies don’t come on platters.'
"It's time to get moving," he said. Sheetal slept. Strong coffee had contrary effect on her.
The little car purred along. It was by no means a slow car but with Mitran at the wheel it rarely touched forty. When every driver on Indian roads constantly planned on how to overtake the vehicle in front Mitran did the reverse. When he saw a truck or lorry bearing down on him he was more intent on finding ways of helping them go past him.
This road was less crowded and for the most part it was a dead straight but owing to repairs in the many culverts along the way Mitran had to take diversions. The diversions suddenly ended and the road though not broad was free of traffic. Mitran drove along, daydreaming, as was his wont. His thoughts were on his business that lately has not been doing well. As a diploma holder in electrical engineering he should have had an advantage over rivals who were all non-technical persons. But they seemed to do better. Two large construction companies had switched over to a rival firm and Sheetal was of the view that it was owing to his lack of business sense that he had allowed those firm, which had been with his shop from his father's time, to slip away.
Suddenly he thought it was time to get battery change. He read the dial. He had already missed the optimum time for change. He did not seem to have gone past changing stations for a while. He knew the answer. He was not on the
"No big problem, Mitru. I am sure that in the building we see in the distance we can find someone to procure fresh batteries for us. He drove to the building. The board said that it was an
"We will find out from the small cottage nearby," said Sheetal. "It is probably the residence of the head master of this school."
A happy faced plump lady of about fifty appeared when Mitran rang the bell. Mitran explained his plight. She invited them in and offered them seats.
"We can get the batteries for you of course," she assured them. "It may take less than an hour." She switched on the ceiling fan.
"How did to manage to miss the two battery stations and come to be stranded?"
Sheetal darted a severe glance at her husband but plump lady, who sensed that she had touched a tender chord, intervened.
"Silly of me to waste time asking about what has been and not to bustle about what is to be." She pressed a bell and a khaki clad young man presented himself soon after. Mitran paid him the price for two charged batteries. He was soon off with the batteries loaded in his van.
The plump lady was Miss Maria. She was correspondent of the school. She explained that opportunity schools are for mentally retarded children. The fan stopped suddenly.
"Power outage," said Maria. "Another two hours at least. A difficult time for our residents."
"Why two hours," asked Mitran.
"Five minutes of outage is all you coddled city folks can tolerate," said Maria, but in this rural parts if you get power back in two hours you are lucky."
Mitran was not sharp enough to note his wife's face light up in a surge of inspiration.
"Miss Maria," said Sheetal "our missing our road today might be owing to our silliness (here she darted a sharp glance at her husband), but there is providence in it. The end to your outage problem is in sight."
"I don't get you Mrs. Mitran," said Maria.
"Call me Sheetal. Have you heard of the firm Mitran and Sheetal?"
"I don't think I have."
"We are in the business of setting up solar power units to homes," she said.
To Mitran's credit the dizziness caused by suddenly finding himself a partner in a well-known firm dealing in solar power units lasted for only a moment. He sat up. "You must of course have seen these power units all over though I did not see any in this neighbourhood," continued Sheetal.
"Some of my neighbours are thinking about it. But as you have observed none have ventured to install one."
"It is so easy to install and so easy to maintain," said Sheetal. "Please permit me to explain. Two panels, the shiny contraptions you can see from the road on the roof of houses, are the heart of the unit. They measure two metres by one and a half metres. They are specially designed plates of conductive polymer laced with nano quantities of semiconductors. They convert solar energy to electrical energy and store them in batteries. For homes and our car we need two of these batteries. There is no dearth of sunshine in our country throughout the year. One an average day cloudy or not, the batteries store enough power to last 36 hours."
"Cost?" asked Maria.
"Sunshine is of course free. Material cost, installation cost and maintenance cost are very reasonable." Sheetal paused as if to set her thoughts in order. Maria was obviously interested. "Cost of material, the panels, batteries, wiring, labour for setting up the units and getting them into a fully functioning condition costs Rs.20000. This includes one-year guarantee for the equipment and free maintenance during that period. Maintenance cost? That's the funny part. Expect for battery replacement once in three years there is nothing. How does it compare in cost to power Electricity Board supplies? What is you power bill?
"Averages over Rs. 3000 a month."
"That includes house and school?"
"Yes."
"Your electricity bill for the next three years if you use as much power as you are doing now from EB would be," Sheetal pulled out the calculator she used while shopping from her handbag to do the calculation, "Rs. 108000. Now for the cost of solar power. For both the school and house you may need 2 units. That comes to Rs. 40000. A profit of Rs. 68000. At the end of the next three years and for every three years after that the profit will be not 68000 but Rs. 102000.
"Unbelievable," said Maria.
“But true.”
"Please have a cup of coffee or something cool to drink," said Maria.
"No it’s too late for coffee," said Sheetal.
"Lunch then."
"Much too early for that.”
"You car should be ready in another half an hour or even less. Coming back to solar power. I am interested but I am not sure I have the funds," said Maria.
"I have a suggestion," said Sheetal. "You install one unit. When you are ready for it we do the next unit." Maria agreed.
Their car was ready. Seethal pocketed an advance of Rs. 5000 from Maria and soon they were on their way.
"Are you mad Seethu," said Mitran, “how do you expect to fulfil the contract?"
"No me alone Mithu but both of us. Not only this but more contracts like this," said Sheetal with quite assurance. "You can kiss goodbye to your restful days spent on your soft chair under the whirling fan in your shop. From now on you have to be as busy as a bee protecting your investment. Tomorrow we start. First thing in the morning I go to the press and order for receipt books, order forms and promotion leaflets. You will get your shop stocked with all the wires and switches and other things we need for a solar power units. Then you will find out about solar panels and batteries and get one set ready for the day after tomorrow and tell the wholesaler that you are in the market for many more and get maximum discounts. We take two workmen from your shop and proceed in
our van with our goods and do the installation the day after tomorrow. When you are attending to that I reconnoitre the neighbourhood. Not in the city but here in the rural areas. I expect to bag at least three orders in a week. Are you ready for some hard work?" Mitran nodded.
Though he was in a confused state he did the only correct thing that day—he turned the car back towards the city. On the way Sheetal was busy noting down something in a scrapbook.
"What are you writing?" asked Mitran.
"I am noting down the names of small towns not adorned with solar panels," she said. After we have done with Maria and her neighbours we work these towns."
"Good idea."
That was how the firm of Mitran and Sheetal, came into being. They are a bit expensive but they hold top spot in the field of solar power for homes. Maybe it is because they supply quality goods and gave exemplary aftercare service, or maybe it is quiet efficiency of the technical director that makes them click. But insiders know more. They have no doubt that the charm, drive and the never-say-no-never-take-no attitude of the lady who is the managing director of the firm that is the key to their success.
http://abrahamsukumar.sulekha.com/blog/post/2008/09/india-leads-the-way-in-solar-power-fantasy-or-prediction.htm
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