JOIN USOn his way to Chennai to participate in an energy conference, Dr Kohn enlightened the audience at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) here about how people should look at harnessing energy from the Sun and the wind on Friday.
He said that although crude oil and coal, constituting 58.3 per cent, were the biggest sources of energy today, many countries were also taking interest in nuclear energy, India being one of them.
People think that installing solar panels are an expensive proposition but look at the alternative, but the the current sources of energy will be much more expensive than what it is now in the next five to 10 years, he cautioned.
Dr Kohn advised that there are two things people can do at present – go to the local MLA or MP and question them on the percent of energy generated by sun and wind, how it can be improved, and take a loan and put up a modest solar panel on the roof. “If you cannot afford a bigger capacity solar panels, at least get one which will produce enough hot water for the family. This will benefit in two ways. One is the fact that you will slow down global warming and second, you will electricity bill and over the years find that the initial investment has paid off,” he said.