By: Amanda Froelich,
In every corner of the world, sustainable technologies and innovative designs are being implemented. This is so even in the land of pilgrimage and spiritual devotion.
India, in all its diversity, glory, poverty, riches, and religious ties is adopting more solar energy in order to become more eco-friendly and save the populace money. Gujarat is the state in India, a country of 1.3 billion, to be adopting these advances.
Currently, there is 19,000 km of connected canals, and the state is planning on using the existing network to set up solar panels and generate power. This pilot project is projected to generate 16 million units of clean energy per annum, and also prevent evaporation of 9 million liters of water annually from the canal.
An official told Business Line that the concept will be to tackle two of the challenges simultaneously by providing energy and water security.
Installing solar panels will likely save the country money and help the State transition into more eco-friendly technologies. The cost of megawatt per solar power is estimated to be much less than the Rs 100 million, as the two banks of the canal will be used to cover the canal by installing solar panels. The government will also not have to spend as much on creating basic infrastructure, including land acquisition.
Currently, Gujarat has about 458 km of open Main Canal, while the total canal length, including the sub-branches, is about 19,000 km. When the project is completed, the SSNNL’s canal network will be about 85,000 km long.
While it is estimated that only about ten percent of the 19,000 km will be utilized for the solar panel project, it is assumed 2,200 MW of solar power generating capacity can be installed through even this percent. In effect, about 11,000 acres of land can be potentially conserved along with about 20 billion litres of water saved annually.
As environmentally friendly technologies become more mainstream, it will continue being interesting to witness the implementation of different alternative energy sources around the world.