What do a small Italian village, a community of millionaires in Oregon and a town in Austria have in common? Nearly all of their electricity needs are supplied by renewable energy. They are by no means the only ones. A growing number of communities are working towards using only electricity generated by renewables.
That we need 'green' technologies-wind, solar or biomass gasification -- for future energy security is no longer a matter of debate. The critical question, now, is: under what conditions can these emerging technologies be introduced into the market?
The Ladakh Ecological Development Group or LEDeG for short is an NGO (non-governmental organization), which came into being in 1983, and has been actively involved in awareness generation programmes related to the environment and sustainable development. LEDeG is a firm believer in being a real practitioner of alternate energy technologies like solar PV (photovoltaic).
Wind energy continues to be the dominant source of renewable power in India. About 8000 MW of wind power capacity has been installed in the country so far. As against this, the share of solar power is abysmally low mainly due to its high initial capital cost and thus, a higher cost of per unit power generation.
The Ministry of Water and Power was committed to promote alternative energy to overcome the acute shortage of energy and to meet the growing demand of electricity in the country. Minister for Water and Power Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said this while talking to Tariq Sayeed, President Saarc Chamber and former President FPCCI who called on him here along with Zubair Ahmed Malik, former Vice President FPCCI.
This piece is in response to a news item which appeared in The Daily Star on August 10 under the headline "1m solar household systems by 2012 to achieve target'.