A new study has found that forest fires that plague different parts of India, especially during the summer season play a major role in reducing solar power production in India. (0-45%)
| Utility: UPSC, JPSC, BPSC Prelims & Mains Section: Economy: Energy Sector / Environment & Ecology : Forrest Fire |
Key Points
- Such analysis of the energy and financial losses due to the direct and indirect effects of forest fires on the production of solar plants can help grid operators.
- The analysis could be used to plan and schedule power generation, as also the distribution, supply, security, and overall stability of power production.
- Recently, solar energy generation has been widely used in developing countries such as India which has sufficient solar resources.
- However, several factors like clouds, aerosols, and pollution generated from various sources limit solar irradiance.
- This causes performance issues in photovoltaic and concentrated solar power plant installations.
- Large-scale development of a solar energy system requires proper planning, and there is a need to estimate the solar potential.
- This study was done by a group of researchers at the Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), Nainital.
- The study shows that massive forest fire events lead to attenuation of total solar radiation incident on a horizontal surface by 0-45%.
