Comments on: India Must Invest in Solar Power R&D Now

By: larissa

larissa — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 04:06:28 +0000

The story of Spain’s solar industry and why it failed is worth looking into…

By: Shripad

Shripad — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 03:22:33 +0000

India is one of the fortunate countries to get abundant solar energy through out the year (mostly). Developped West doesnot have that luxury(not sure about China, but going by their lattitude, they will not). Western Scientist/Technologists donot have their own interest in developping technology for tapping solar energy. If at all they have to do, they need to do for business reasons — extracting pound of flesh from Indian power industry.

But our great and powerful leaders look at West to get technology and also investment. Unless someone can make a good business deal with our policy makers and politician, seeing light of solar day is distant dream.

By: Ranjit

Ranjit — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:23:36 +0000

Points well taken – however, you should have mentioned that India did come out with a very ambitious National Solar Mission – out of respect for Atanu I have not included the name of the famous person after whom it is named A rough calculation of the money being thrown at it is ~Rs.40K crores over the next few years coming from both the central govt. budget and electricity consumers. A good thing? Well not completely! As usual – one has to assess HOW all this money will be spent. The way it seems to be envisioned right now – a large portion of the money may lead to unwanted outcomes. Another problem was the process – essentially, a closed one – that was used to develop this document. The civic society needs to step up its game to both open up the process of how all this money will be spent and also contribute intellectually to making the mission a success.

By: Environment in India « M2iu’s Weblog

Environment in India « M2iu’s Weblog — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:40:57 +0000

[...] 1, 2010 · Filed under India, environment · Tagged environment, solar power Here is an article by Atanu Dey about the need for investment in solar power in [...]

By: Leonard

Leonard — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 23:36:08 +0000

Yes, but why are you talking about forests when there are all these damned trees in the way?

I think solar is an excellent idea for every country on the planet (yes, even Saudi Arabia), but on the “moon landing” scale you’re talking about? Does the Indian gov’t have the money, the will and the political capital to push something like that through the Parliament? As soon as it was suggested, it would likely be torn to shreds by demagogues decrying expensive pie-in-the-sky schemes while “Problem X” gets neglected. Elected politicians, a congenitally craven subspecies of Homo sapiens, would panic and flee before the idea ever got beyond the suggestion stage.

Implementing solar on a smaller (or maybe just more decentralized) scale could be achievable with current off-the-shelf technology. It doesn’t provide the same economic licensing bonuses or enhanced national pride in Indian engineering genius that you suggest, but from a consequentialist standpoint an incremental approach is better than nothing, isn’t it? Solar cells themselves can be had for relatively little on the open market — it’s how they’re deployed that makes the difference.

I’ve often wondered if, since something as basic as refrigeration can make a huge difference in people’s lives, there isn’t an inexpensive way to bring solar technology to bear on that issue in India’s underdeveloped areas. Refrigerated trucks to transport agricultural goods to market and refrigeration for personal food stock alone could make a significant economic and quality of life difference in rural parts of the country particularly.

By: Anonymous Coward

Anonymous Coward — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:18:12 +0000

If you want to witness the kind of stupidity that has dragged India down, you just need to visit http://nanopolitan.blogspot.com/2010/01/how-many-indian-phds-from-us.html#comments and http://nanopolitan.blogspot.com/2010/01/website-for-new-faculty-at-iisc.html#comments

And this from supposedly educated Indians, some abroad.

By: harsha

harsha — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:50:19 +0000

Are the Indian leader’s so incompetent? What are they doing? When I told my family about the deeds(you have written in a previous article) of one mr.Y.S.R and his father, they absolutely rubbished me saying he did well for rayalaseema and reddy’s and minorities(perhaps) and that i should salute him for doing good things for farmers .

What is the white boss upto? Is she building her already over flowing bank balance?

By: Atanu Dey

Atanu Dey — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:46:55 +0000

Vickram writes, “I think India does not have enough qualified people, infrastructure, . . . ”

Isn’t that the truth, though? And most people know that, including yours truly. As I wrote above in the post, “. . . using the best brains that exist anywhere in the world. Hire the best scientists and pay them so much that they would not consider working on anything else. Create programs in all the top Indian research institutes and reward people with sacks of gold or whatever floats their boats . . .”

By: Vikram

Vikram — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 08:33:16 +0000

I think India does not have enough qualified people, infrastructure to pursue such a difficult task of tapping solar energy. If you ever take a peek at the dismal state in which our the Science departments of our universities are in, you would agree 100% with me. If ever the government does provide large amounts of funds for it, rest assured that they are all going to be wasted by ill qualified professors. I can’t see how we can ever beat other developed nations with cutting edge laboratories attracting the best talent from all over the world. The only thing we can hope for is to partner with some other developed nation like US or Japan.

By: Suhit Anantula

Suhit Anantula — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 04:58:04 +0000

You are so right and so is Lomborg.

If we had started in 2003; we would have been so much more near to the problem and would have easily spoken from a position of strength in the major world negotiations.

But alas…