Inspite of the almost all-year-round hot weather and occasional water scarcity, one thing that is awesome about Chennai is the un-interrupted power supply. Power cuts happen very rarely
and even when they do, the Electricity Board (EB) ensures that things are back to normal ASAP.
Compare this situation to say in Kerala, where apart from the official 2-4 hours of daily power
cuts (load shedding, as the EB calls it), there are unofficial power cuts that leave you sweating
and fuming.
With summer already setting in, nights are kind of hot and most people have started activating
their air-conditioners, though as of now, a ceiling fan is kind of enough. Yesterday night, power went off around three times for some 5 minute duration each time, which was surprising as it
was very unusual. Though power was restored fast, it made me think of how much of easily and freely available power we are wasting in Chennai and most other parts of India.
This comes in the form of solar energy, which in Chennai is freely available almost throughout
the year. The sun in Chennai is like a blazing furnace directed downwards and if it were not for
the sea breeze that we are blessed with, life could be hell.
The good thing is that this can be harnessed and used for a variety of applications. The traffic police had started an initiative some time ago to power the traffic booths with solar energy.
The solar panel on top of the booth would be enough to power a light and fan provided inside
the booth for the policeman on duty. However, from the looks of it, it seems this has been
ignored. I am not sure though.
As Chennai becomes a concrete jungle with more and more high rises (both residential and business complexes) coming up, isn't solar energy a viable and cheap option ? The terrace of these complexes should provide enough space to put up the panels and the energy could be
used for lighting purposes, thereby resulting in lessening the load on our thermal power plants
and also provide savings for the users in terms of reduced EB charges.
Our apartment complex consumes electricity worth Rs.4500 every 2 months. Of this, the bulk
of the usage (approximately 70%) is for powering the 4 water motors that pump water from
the underground sumps to the overhead tanks. I am not sure whether solar energy can be
used for energy-intensive applications like driving water pumps. However, it definitely can be
used for lighting up the complex which currently consumes the remaining 30% of the energy
drawn by us.
Ofcourse, the usual obstacle would be the initial investment for setting up the solar energy
system and for re-wiring the lighting system to be connected to the solar energy source.
This would require each flat owner to contribute some amount. Ofcourse all of the owners
are pretty well off and can easily afford this amount. However, they would look at this from
another point of view - what is in it for me ?
Well, to be frank, the only owners benefitting from this would be the ones staying in the flats, because the savings on power will be reflected in the reduced maintenance amount that they
pay monthly. So, those that have rented out their flats do not stand to gain much. And would therefore not be willing to fork out their share.
The tenants would ofcourse benefit due to reduced maintenance rates, but then they are there
only temporarily and thus would not be willing to contribute. So, finally it will be like running
around in circles, with nothing really happening.
One option is for the Govt to insist on new projects to compulsorily use solar power for the
exterior lighting. Just like rainwater harvesting was made compulsory.This would ensure that atleast new projects would make use of this huge source of energy, benefitting not only
themselves, but also lessening the load on the electricity supply system.
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