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: Sustainability and the reduction of greenhouse gases are two important issues that confront all countries. Thermal power from fossil fuels is now sought to be replaced as far as possible with hydro, nuclear and renewable energy.
However, large hydro projects of the storage type cause an adverse impact on ecology, nuclear power plants are yet to overcome apprehensions over the final disposal of spent fuel, and renewable energy is either not available on demand or techno-economic issues have yet to be overcome for commercial viability. These drawbacks are miniscule compared to the threat from fossil fuels. In the basket of renewable resources of energy, except solar photo voltaic (SPV), the others are very close to commercialisation.
SPV is, however, cheaper in off-grid and remote locations, due to either the high cost of extending the grid line or limitation of technical feasibility and unavailability of local resources for power generation. SPV power is spreading in remote rural areas as domestic lighting systems and for stand-alone off-grid distribution for specific areas. In the urban areas, where large-scale application is possible and necessary, SPV systems suffer from the constraints of high cost.
To encourage SPV, feed-in tariff has been introduced in developed countries, which ensure the purchase of energy by grid authorities at higher than general tariff from entrepreneurs setting up grid-connected SPV systems to meeting domestic requirements and/or sale to utilities. Feed-in tariff for renewable resources like wind, small hydro and biomass energy is in force in many states with notifications from State Electricity Regulatory Commissions.
It is likely that feed-in tariff for
SPV grid connected systems (SPV-GCS) would also be introduced soon in urban areas where power consumption is substantial, to stimulate the growth solar power. With more applications of SPV devices and R&D, technology will improve efficiency and together with bulk consumption, the price will fall.
Depending upon the number of modules arranged in series and parallel, SPV arrays can generate 1 kw to 2 mw, if not more, for linkage with a grid. Going by the market rate, the cost of an SPV-GCS will vary between Rs 22-25 crore per mw. Small, rooftop units (1-3 kw) cost less than a set-up requiring large tracts of land and buildings for the control room and services. This capital cost is no doubt about five times that of thermal power plants costing around Rs 4 crore per mw. As such, SPV systems need subsidy which, along with...
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