Fuel for the future

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: two years as polysilicon becomes easily available, production and installation are further scaled up, manufacturing efficiencies increase and more advanced technologies are introduced.

The Indian government through the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has drawn up ambitious plans to tap the potential for generating solar power. For solar energy programmes, fund releases have accelerated. In 2007-08, it amounted to Rs 77 crore, up from Rs 74 crore in the previous year. Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Meghalaya and Uttarakhand are major beneficiaries. India has not just sunshine round the year, but it could offer the ingredients to manufacture devices that store and distribute higher conversion efficiency power, said Stanley T Myers, President and Chief Executive Officer, Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI).

With oil set to become scarcer in the long run and also cartelised now, and coal being a polluting source, solar energy is a clean, renewable source that can meet the global energy requirements over the long run. Presently, the conversion efficiencies of PV cells and the costs of making them are not very economical. Hence, the industry needs the support from the Government to accelerate technology developments and make it more cost effective.