Proposal to introduce solar invertors

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/04/07/stories/2009040754270400.htm

The Delhi Government’s power department is mulling over a proposal to introduce solar panels for recharging batteries used to run appliances of everyday use during power cuts and outages. The proposal comes at a time when the department has been stressing the need to use more green energy and reduce dependence on non-renewable energy.

An official of the power department said the concept is similar to that of a solar water heater. “Solar panels are used to draw the energy of the sun to run appliances just like an inverter does. While an inverter uses energy from the grid to recharge the battery, here the battery gets recharged from solar energy, which is clean and economical,” he said.

The proposal to use solar energy to run the inverter has been put forth by Moserbaer Photo Voltaic, a company that manufactures photovoltaic products.

Explaining the concept, the company’s general manager Gagan Vermani said: “The idea is to utilise solar energy at the level of smaller consumers as well. We usually see the use of solar energy in villages and at large scale. Also the accent has been on solar water heating, which is required for a relatively shorter period, therefore we made this suggestion to introduce solar modules for charging inverter batteries.”

The system will allow consumers to pick the size of the modules as per their requirement and save on their energy bills. “The battery here will not require power from the grid to recharge; it will get re-energised even as it is being used from the solar modules attached to it. Apart from the initial investment (the cost of modules) the system does not incur any running costs,” said Mr. Vermani.

A 100-Watt module for instance requires a space of one metre square in dimension and costs about Rs.15,000. “All it (modules) requires is a bit of cleaning once every few days so that the efficiency does not go down. The modules last for as long as 25 years”. To make the concept economically viable for consumers, the company has also proposed extending a subsidy to the buyers. “To popularise solar water heating the government offers a subsidy to consumers. A similar formula should be worked out for the solar invertors as well, inverters are used in all kinds of weather and definitely more than the water heaters,” he said. Owing to the gap in the demand and supply of power in the city and its suburbs, the sale of invertors has been on the rise over the years. The ASSOCHAM in 2008 had forecast a 30-35 per cent hike in the demand for inverters, their batteries and generator sets.