New solar dome to improve slum-dwellers' lives

Surya Jyoti domes can illuminate homes for close to 16-18 hours a day

A new dome-shaped solar lighting device that can illuminate the dark quarters of urban slums is likely to be taken up by the government.

The government is likely to take it up in a major way to improve the lives of slumdwellers. Developed by a team of engineers in Kolkata, almost 300 units of the micro solar domes have been installed in three slums in Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai in the last one-and-a-half years.

As thousands of those slums still approaches the team to put the Surya Jyoti domes in their homes, the team now looks up to the government for the scale up.

“While solar lanterns can provide light for 4-5 hours, our Surya Jyoti domes can illuminate for close to 16-18 hours a day,” said team leader and electrical engineer S P Gon Chaudhuri, former director of the West Bengal Renewable Energy Development Agency Next month, 500 of these domes would be put in a slum in Bangalore in collaboration with Selco foundation, a non-governmental outfit.

“We are now looking at the possibility of installing these devices in 10 million households. With bulk production, the cost, too, would come down,” said Union Science Minister Harsh Vardhan.

The dome is available in two versions—with and without the solar panels. Those without the photovoltaic cells are meant for daytime use and costs Rs 500. The other one with solar panels attached to it can be used in the night and would cost about Rs 1,200.

“With bulk orders, the cost figures are expected to get further reduced to Rs 400 and Rs 900 respectively. The plan is to link them with the subsidies under various schemes of the Ministries of Urban Development, Rural Development and Renewable Energy,” Vardhan said.

Fitted on to the roof, the micro solar dome captures the sunlight through a transparent semi-spherical upper dome and concentrates it inside a dark room.

The light passes through a sun tube having a thin layer of highly reflective coating.

According to a TERI University test report, the illumination level at midday goes as high as a 15W LED bulb. As the entire contraption has been made leakproof, the rooms below the domes are safe in the monsoon season.

Besides TERI University, the device was also tested at the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai and the Indian Institute of Engineering, Science and Technology, Kolkata. Gon Chaudhuri claims he has a patent on the device. Similar lighting devices are available in the global market with more than ten times higher cost.