Surjokarmaa
Mission

1 Why Solar ?

The moment we turn on an electrical switch to start a gadget at home or at work, the current that starts flowing has to come only from the nearest thermal power station, in most places in India. This requires that the power station produce more electricity through coal burning, thus generating more carbon dioxide, adding to the already intolerable levels of pollution. This adds to current alarmingly high levels of global warming and environmental degradation of our one and only Mother Earth. This is not even to mention that the partly privatized power sector in India is already importing coal from countries like Indonesia because our own coal reserves are close to being depleted. Is this situation economically viable ? The story of nuclear power is sad as the contribution from that sector remains grossly suboptimal for the country's needs.



2 The Solar Alternative: issues with ongrid systems

Solar energy remains a very robust and reliable alternative to fossil fuels, because of its inexhaustability, its accessibility to every human being on the planet and the fact that it is pollution-free. The question is : what approach shall we take to utilizing this abundant bonanza from Nature? Mainstream methodology on harnessing solar energy has so far advocated and sponsored installation of large arrays of heavy-duty solar panels (as solar power stations) producing direct current (DC) electrical power at, usually, 12 volts. This is stored in large batteries and then converted to 220 volts alternating current (AC) electricity by inverters for supplying homes and industries. Usually, the solar array is linked to the extant local electrical power grid to supplement the power supplied by the latter, with the provision that any excess solar electricity could be sold to the grid owner (government or private companies) for a reduction in the electricity bills of the consumer. This gridtie framework of harvesting solar energy is fairly common across the world.

However, centralized gridtie rooftop solar energy usage, has, in recent times, been confronted with issues of viability. The non-viability of rooftop gridtie solar electricity stems from several factors :

  • Consumers do not access solar electricity directly in this system, by design.
  • Consumers have no control on the carbon footprint reduction.
  • Wasteful DC-AC or AC-DC reconversion cycles for using mobile phones, laptops, etc.
  • Shock hazards of High Voltages generated on your rooftop.
  • Failure rates of inverters and other equipment for High Voltage handling.
  • Prohibitive costs and dependence on providers for sustained electricity supply.
  • Independence of individual accessibility of solar energy does not translate into independence of individual usage.


3 Standalone, Low voltage Systems

The alternative is a fully decentralized, direct-use, standalone rooftop solar energy harvesting system using the 12 Volt DC electricity supplied by sunlight. Such a system makes fullest use of the individual independence that solar energy affords to every human being, without any possibility of government or corporate ownership, unlike thermal-electricity, hydroelectricity or nuclear-electricity. The system is consumer-serviceable and can be easily upgraded by the consumer. It poses no shock hazard at all, and its source will remain in abundance so long as life sustains on this planet. It is also enormously cost-effective. The standard 'effciency' argument is not exactly valid when the base resource, sunlight, is absolutely unlimited.

Most people in our sun-drenched country live in small houses which make them ideal for this autonomous system of decentralized solar energy usage. Individual families in remote villages without grid electricity now may obtain direct autonomous access to 12 Volt DC solar electricity for homes, schools, primary health care centres and street lighting. Local youth can be easily trained to run solar panels at their homes as also to set up rural startup companies to manufacture inexpensive solar powered devices including a number of medical appliances for schools and primary health care centres, towards a self-sustaining local economy. All that is needed is a little help from a caring government towards subsidizing solar panels and other components of this system (including batteries). Is there a better, more explicit way to use Nature's generous gift to mankind?