News on the Go.. - koolfriend4u
THE JAWHAR Lal Nehru National Solar Mission will formally be launched by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh during the Solar Energy Conclave 2010 today, January 11, 2010 at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi.
The mission targets 20,000 MW grid solar power, 2,000 MW off grid solar applications and 20 million sq meters of solar thermal collectors by the year 2022. For development of reliable and cost effective solar energy technologies, the Solar Energy Centre of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has been working on various aspects of solar resource utilization and technology development for many years.
On January 10, 2010, on the eve of this important development, Dr. Farooq Abdullah, Union minister of New and Renewable Energy laid the foundation stone for three more technical facilities in the R&D campus of the Solar Energy Centre situated on the Gurgaon-Faridabad Road. Speaking on the accasion, he emphasized the need for more of such research and development in the area to establish India as a global leader in solar energy.
These facilities include the Solar Thermal Testing, Research and Simulation facility being developed by a consortium led by Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. The facility would have a grid connected solar thermal power plant of 1 MW capacity. This will also include a test set up that will enable companies and research institutions to test the performance of different solar concentrator options, coatings and materials, components and systems for a solar thermal power plant. The consortium members include Tata Power, Tata Consulting Engineers, Larsen & Toubro, Clique, KIE Solatherm and Solar Energy Centre.
The second facility is a pilot project based on a solar concentrator technology that promises delivering low cost thermal energy.
The third facility is a 20 kW solar photovoltaic power plant for testing various design configurations.
Deepak Gupta, secretary of MNRE (Ministry of New and Renewable Energy) , was also present on the occasion. He said that the efforts of the Solar Energy Centre are in sync with the aims of the National Solar Mission which envisions the establishment of Centres of Excellence in the country for solar energy research.