‘A country has to tap green energy to be successful’

As only 16% of the renewable energy is being utilised in the world annually, we have a long way to go, Prof K Balaveera Reddy, Chairperson of Board of Governors, National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK), said on Friday.

He was addressing the gathering after inaugurating a three-day international conference on ‘Recent Advances on Renewable Energy (RARE) 2020’, organised jointly by NITK-Surathkal and Government Engineering College-Jhalawar (GECJ), Rajasthan, at NITK campus in Surathkal.

A country to be successful has to tap green energy to ensure a sustainable future. Many of the developing countries were meeting their energy requirements through bio-fuel, Prof Reddy observed.

He said the solar energy had not been tapped to its maximum potential in the country. For instance, a single daylight hour of solar energy contains 1,78,000 Terra Watts of energy and is 15,000 times more than the annual total energy consumption of the whole world.

Similarly, there is a need to carry out serious efforts on tapping other renewable sources of energy such as ocean and wind energy, Reddy added.

NITK-Surathkal Director Prof K Umamaheshwar Rao, presiding over the programme, said for an overpopulated country like India, per capita consumption of energy is way too high and the conventional sources of energy had not been able to meet the energy requirements.

Electricity distribution companies are running short of power and are forced to hike the prices as the demand is higher as against the supply.

‘’For centuries, we have been mining coal for power generation. Power generation from Uranium could be the best option for today,” he stressed.

Conference Secretary from NITK Dr Veershetty Gumtapure said the conference includes technical sessions by experts focussing on a wide range of topics ranging from creation of bio-fuel from coffee husk to application of artificial intelligence techniques in renewable energy system.

‘’Policy matters in the sector of renewable energy will also be discussed, along with presentations of successful models adopted in various countries,” he said.

Prof R P Sharma from Centre for Energy Studies, IIT-Delhi, was the chief guest.

Government Engineering College, Jhalawar (GECJ) Principal Dr Karthar Singh, Conference Secretaries from NITK, Prof Paresh Chandra Deka, Dr Debashisha Jena and Joint Secretaries (GECJ) Dr Ashwin Sharma and Dr Motilal Rinawa were present on the occasion.