India and the United States have started an initiative to develop solar energy through photovoltaic (PV) projects and concentrated solar power (CSP), also known as solar thermal.
This comes four months after India experienced one of the world’s biggest blackouts, which affected more than 680 million people.
Titled ‘SERIIUS’ (Solar Energy Research Initiative of India and the United States), the $50 million project would be conducted by the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Science and the Washington-based National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
“We are expecting the project to produce desirable results within five years,” Rajeev Deshpande, a senior energy official, told an energy conference here.
Unlike traditional solar panels, CSP projects concentrate a large area of sunlight onto a small area of contained liquid. The liquid heats up, emits steam, and a generator converts the steam into electricity.