Direct from Sun

The useful part

We need electricity for every household, everywhere in J&K—365 days a year, 30 days a month, 7 days a week, and 24 hours a day. No, it is a wish that the sun in the sky grants to the people living under a roof on the earth. The demand for electricity is ever increasing, and there is always a gap between supply and demand.

How it works

• In J&K, we have enough water resources to produce as much—in fact, more—electricity than we need.
• There are structural, financial, and administrative problems that come in the way.
• The result is that when the Kashmir region needs more power during the winter season, there is a sharp dip in supply.
• When Jammu and such regions need electricity in summers, there isn't enough to be supplied.
• Like our capital cities, the suffering on account of electricity shortage also shifts its space.

What to take from it

No outage, no drop in voltage, no pilferage, no transmission losses. The way we have seen landslides and flash floods, the danger of a dam burst is real. If we keep playing with our mountains and rivers the way we are, by undertaking massive developmental projects while compromising environmental safety, we are inviting a catastrophe of immense magnitude.

Details worth keeping

Now comes the element of environmental sensitivity. The option currently available to us is solar electricity. The government is already putting lots of emphasis on this,...