Make Solar Solutions More Affordable

At the micro level, one of the most notable challenges is cost effectiveness. Solar PV, especially, still needs to gain effective cost competitiveness in order to compete well and be at par with other energy generation technologies.

With the rising demand of energy (expected to reach 15,820 TWh by 2040), renewable energy is set to play a very important and vital role for India’s economic and overall development. IBEF reports indicate that renewable energy is expected to account for 55 per cent of the total installed power capacity by 2030 with a capacity of around 500 GW.

The mention of renewable energy is incomplete without talking about the solar energy. India is recognised as the third largest market for solar. The country aims for installing 100 GW of solar capacity by 2022.

Not only domestic, solar energy can play a significant role in the industrial segment too especially the energy-intensive industries which require large amount of electricity to run heavy equipment and enable heating &cooling systems. These industrial activities have a huge potential to be replaced by a solar energy source leading to significant saving in cost as well as ecological burden in the long run.

Looking at the sector’s evolution and its adoption in the industrial as well as domestic sphere, it seems there is a considerable progress over the last few years. However, still there is a long way to go. The segment faces many macro and micro level challenges. Lack of steady stream of investments is one of the macro challenges to help flourish the sector in the desired manner. The sector has not been able to attract a significant FDI and so it’s more dependent on domestic investments. The domestic manufacturing ecosystem is yet to become strong and lessen its dependence on imports for capacity addition.

At the micro level, one of the most notable challenges is cost effectiveness. Solar PV, especially, still needs to gain effective cost competitiveness in order to compete well and be at par with other energy generation technologies. This quest towards cost effectiveness, is a collated impact of all the stages involved in the supply chain, however, looking at it closely, it arises right from the product level. The whole design of the product impacts the cost effectiveness significantly. For an instance, one of the most difficult challenges faced by the renewable energy equipment makers (read PV and EV) is to deal with this heat emission and heat dissipation. This leads to not only higher costs but also fire hazards, frequent maintenance, reduced warranty and even total system failures.

Being one of the leading players in the electronic components segment in the country, OMRON has recently unveiled an advanced portfolio of relays exclusively for the energy sector. The relays, targeting at the PV and EV industry equipment makers, bring in immense value in minimising the cost of the solution which in turn plays a great role in increasing its adoption amongst the users. The low contact resistance and optimised design of these relays provide big difference in heat emission and heat dissipation optimisation. The relays not only reduce the heat dissipation but also help in downsizing and making the product (like PV and EV charging) compact delivering a further significant reduction to the overall cost.

Green energy is the future for a country like India which has one of the fastest rates of electricity consumption in the world owing to the population and economic development rate. Our energy supply has been facing lot of difficulties to keep up the pace with demand and there are energy shortages almost everywhere in the country. The traditional sources of energy are limited. There are significant environment concerns. Since energy richness, economic growth, population and pollution – all are interlinked, the equipment makers could surely do their bit by incorporating such technologically advanced components in their solutions. This will go a long way in enhancing the adoption of green energy which is the need of the hour.

Values generated by OMRON’s relays for PCBs
• Reduction in power budget
• Longer life of the whole equipment
• Simplification of the heat dissipation design

Authored by:
Manoj Kodakkatery,
Manager Business Development,
OMRON Electronic Components Business Division, India