With a range of products right from solar lanterns to solar mobile generators on display, a district level exhibition on renewable energy showcased possible energy solutions for households, business establishments and industries in the city on Saturday.
Christened TREE (Tamil Nadu Renewable Energy Exhibition), the exhibition organised by the Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency in association with Rotary International, featured 18 stalls put up by various private companies engaged in manufacture and marketing of renewable energy products, especially solar energy products.
Solar roof top and even floating solutions, solar powered inverters along with requisite accessories, street lights, solar panels, water heaters, home and office lighting products, irrigation pumps, wind and hybrid energy products were on display at the exhibition.
On display at the expo was a mobile solar-powered generator with foldable solar panels, imported from Italy. The three KW unit could be accommodated in just a 10x10 space, offering advantages of space, low noise and no fumes, said T.Raju Rebero, managing director, Contura Solar (India) Pvt. Ltd., which runs a Contura Akshay Urja Shop in the city.
Subsidy
Though the imported unit is priced at Rs.5.50 lakhs, a similar model with Indian solar panels is eligible for 30 per cent government subsidy, said a company representative. Although it could have interested ordinary residents, the business community and the industry, given the power shortage, the one-day exhibition went largely unnoticed in the city for want of adequate publicity. In the absence of any intimation even to the media, not many were aware of the event in the city. Coming at a time when the State government is giving a push for promoting renewable energy, one would have expected the TEDA to have given wide publicity to draw more people, observed the few visitors who had walked in on seeing the TEDA and companies billboards kept in front of the venue.
A junior level official of TEDA, who was present at the venue, shied away from answering queries except to say that the expo was organised at short notice. A Rotary representative said his organisation was involved in facilitating the exhibition but he too maintained that the event had to be organised hurriedly.
