Solar Energy Centre to be Centre of Excellence

HYDERABAD: Solar Energy Center will be the center of excellence for solar in India. Companies and academic institutions with vision should be encouraged to lead the renewable energy sector, said Union MInister for New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah.

Dr. Abdullah laid the foundation station for three projects at the Solar Energy Centre in Gurgaon.Solar Energy Center and IIT Mumbai, under the new initiative with MNRE in academia-industry-government partnership have initiated the project for the megawatt scale solar thermal power research and test facility –first in south Asian region.

 Another project is the steam generating system based on solar parabolic dishes – an indigenous technology. The third was the inauguration of 20 kWp Solar Photovoltaic power plant installed by Solar Semiconductor.

“ As ‘Mecca’ is for Muslims, India should be center for excellence in solar technology,” he said .He also mentioned the need for hybridization of different renewable energy technologies.

Present on the occasion were Vishnu Reddy, Exec. Vice President and Ravi Surapaneni, Vice President, Solar Semiconductor. 

“We are proud to have been chosen for the installation of the 20 KW Solar PV power plant against the stringent specifications and it was only possible with the best in the industry facilities for manufacturing and reliability testing in our plant at Fabcity, Hyderabad,” they said.

Dr.Bibek Bandyohopadhyay, Advisor and Head of Solar Energy Center, said: “We are very happy with system delivered by Solar Semiconductor. We want to use the system to power the entire facilities of the solar energy center and to make the center completely green building.

”Solar Energy Center (SEC) is the technical division of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE). Major activities include research, project development, technical validation, testing and standardization for both Solar Thermal and Solar Photovoltaic products. 

It is a reference center for all solar energy related activities. Certification of solar energy products and coordination of certification centers all over India is a primary responsibility of SEC.

Apart from the above activities, SEC also does consultancy and resource assessment for solar energy in the country. SEC serves as an effective interface between the Government and institutions, industry and user organizations for development, promotion and widespread utilization of solar energy in the country.