Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Chandigarh, November 14:the Punjab today took a major step to realize
the dream of augmenting 1000 MW solar power in next there years as it
decided to join hands with US company Lockheed Martin, that would
provide plastic structures for solar panels on canals by using
nano-technology. The company would also provider state of art
technology to convert paddy straw into energy soloing the lingering
problem of paddy straw burning in the state.
This decision was taken in a meeting between Punjab Non-Conventional
Energy Minister Mr. Bikram Singh Majithia and three member high level
team of Lockheed Martin comprising Mr. Phil Shaw, CEO, Mr. Tushar
Shah. Chief Innovation Officer and Mr. Jagmohan Singh , Regional
Director. Mr. Anirudh Tewari, Secretary Power and reneable Energy and
Dr. Amar Pal Singh CEO, PEDA also took part in the meeting. The Punjab
government and a renowned US company Lockheed Martin would ink a MoU
in this regard .
Interacting with the company CEO Mr. Majithia said that he was moving
with the similar mission to meet 15% demand of energy of the state
form the clean energy and was hopeful that with the nano technology
solar panel developed by US compay, the Punjab would be able to make
solar power generation cost effective, attracting international
investors to invest in this area.
Mr. Majithia pointed out that the state was facing a serious issue of
burning of paddy stubble causing a major damage to the fertility of
land as well as polluting the environment. He said that it could only
be taken care of if the farmers could get some return in lieu of their
agricultural residue. He said it becomes imperative to develop an
efficient and affordable technology to turn it in energy thereby
serving the dual purpose of producing clean energy as well as paying
back some monetary benefits to the farmers. He further said that
Punjab with just having 2 % of total geographical area of country and
purely agri-based economy, it has scarcity of land for big renewable
energy projects. Our government has decided to explore around 5000 Kms
of canal lengths for putting solar panels but due to heavy cost of
structures, it becomes unviable. He said that if Lockheed Martin could
develop cheaper but durable plastic structures then this area has a
huge potential to be harnessed in future. He said that number of
companies were interested in management of solid municipal waste, but
the State government was ready to offer Lockheed Martin to set up a
demonstration project of 1-2 MW.
Taking part in the deliberations, Mr. Phil Shaw, CEO informed the
Minister that their company has come out with waste to energy
conversion solutions with successful conversion of waste products to
electricity, heat and fuel by using gasification processes. He said
that it was an environmentally friendly green recycling technology
which requires low space requirement technology and these plants were
fully automated. He said that wood chips, agri-waste, sewage sludge,
plastics, municipal solid waste and hospital waste could be used for
these plants. On this occasion, Mr. Tushar Shah, Chief Innovation
Officer said that they have also developed a technology for making
durable and affordable plastic by using nano-technology for using it
for making structures of solar panels for canals.
