Shuba V. Raghavan, Anshu Bharadwaj, Anupam A. Thatte, Santosh Harish, Kaveri K. Iychettira, Rajalakshmi Perumal, Ganesh Nayak
The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) announced in December 2009 envisages the installation of over 20,000 MW of grid-connected solar power and another 2,000 MW of off-grid solar power by 2022. Given that the installed capacity stands at merely 10 MW, to realise these targets, clear long-term policies have to be put in place and the implementation of the policies and projects has to be stringently monitored. This report discusses the applications of two primary solar technologies that convert solar energy into useful consumable forms of energy technologies. First, solar Photovoltaic (PV) technologies which convert solar energy directly into electrical energy using solar PV cells; second, solar thermal technologies which convert solar energy into heat energy for non-electrical application.