Excellent post. Very well researched and written. As a Reneewable Energy Expert I welcome some of your views.

No doubt Solar Energy will be future energy option especially as decentralized power. The big question is with about 15% efficiency is it worthwhile to go in a big way for Solar power in a developing country? No doubt the cost of generation of solar power has come down, thanks to the cheap solar material available from China. There are two ways to reduce the cost of power generation in solar, one is massive production to bring down the cost and more efficient systems. With the latter only countries like US,Germany,Spain have big solar power projects.
Let us look at the Solar power projects in Rajasthan. No doubt Desert in Rajasthan experiences high temperatures especially in Summer. I visited Jaisalmer area in Summer in connection with Wind Project there. I visited the area where the present Solar Projects were established. The Problem with Rajasthan is LOO.
Desert countries are of course best suited to photovoltaic generation, but keep in mind that arid regions also have a bigger problem with dust, that means PV panels have to be frequently cleaned to maintain optimum power production, and that of course requires a further expenditure of energy for maintenance.
Some countries are setting up Vast solar arrays in desert countries and exporting the power to other countries. And the bigger the solar park, the more people and machines will be needed to keep making the rounds and cleaning the panels, especially after a dust storm. This continuing expenditure of energy for maintenance needs to be taken into account. If cleaning is neglected, then before you know it a solar park's output will drop to half or even below as dust continues to accumulate.
Dust accumulation on the Solar Panels is a big problem especially in arid regions.
Everybody knows anything immobile is quickly covered, whether hanging laundry, parked cars or solar panels.
Unless regularly removed, accumulated dust can in one month reduce a solar panel's efficiency by 35 per cent, according to some experts, more if there is a dust storm. Making matters worse is that, in addition to the dust that blows in from the desert, the region's relatively high humidity helps turn fine dust into a sort of crust. "It makes the dust stick,"
Using precious water in those regions is expensive nor regular cleaning manually large installations.
Why not Scientists develop non sticky dust glass ? A glass where the dust won't stick to the surface but slides with a periodic jerk. In Rajasthan,India there is ambitious Solar PV Programme for large scale power. Dust storms in Rajasthan during summer are common which are carried to far way places.
The Loo is a strong, hot and dry summer afternoon wind from the west which blows over the western Indo-Gangetic Plain region of North India and Pakistan. It is especially strong in the months of May and June. Due to its very high temperatures (45 °C–50 °C or 115°F-120°F), exposure to it often leads to fatal heat strokes.
Infact there are places hot enough like Ramagundam,Kothagudem,Rentachintala in Andhra Pradesh.
Though India occupies 5th position in Wind in the world,we need to adopt innovation methods to harness the Wind Energy.

Wind farm co-operatives can be started in India on the lines of those in Denmark.. A Wind Fund can be created and the investments in it by Individual Income Tax payers can be exempted under Section
80 C. This way there will be funds available for large scale wind farms besides large participation of people in the Wind Farms. Offshore wind farms will be future energy option to supplement conventional power. With extensive research on large size wind turbines and installation techniques of offshore wind turbines, the cost of power generation through offshore wind farms is expected to come down to be competitive with conventional power. USA, China, South Korea, Taiwan, France and Japan have ambitious plans to go in for offshore wind farms on a massive scale.

Yet another option is Biofuel from Agave and Biogas from Opuntia and power generation. Agave is a care – free growth plant which can be grown in millions of hectares of waste land and which produces Biofuel. Already Mexico is using it. Another Care free growth plant is Opuntia which generates Biogas. Biogas can be input to generate power through Biogas Generators. Biogas generators of MW size are available from China. Yet another option is Water Hyacinth for biogas. Water Hyacinth along with animal dung can produce biogas on a large scale and then power. In Kolleru lake in Godavari and Krishna Delta in Andhra Pradesh it is available in 308 Sq. Km for nearly 8 months in a year.

Crassulacean acid metabolism, also known as CAM photosynthesis, is a carbon fixationpathway that evolved in some plants as an adaptation to arid conditions In a plant using full CAM, the stomata in the leaves remain shut during the day to reduce evapotranspiration, but open at night to collect carbon dioxide (CO2). The CO2 is stored as the four-carbon acidmalate, and then used during photosynthesis during the day. The pre-collected CO2 is concentrated around the enzyme RuBisCO, increasing photosynthetic efficiency. Agave and Opuntia are the best CAM Plants.

Researchers find that the agave plant will serve as a biofuel crop to produce ethanol.
"Agave has a huge advantage, as it can grow in marginal or desert land, not on arable land," and therefore would not displace food crops, says Oliver Inderwildi, at the University of Oxford.The majority of ethanol produced in the world is still derived from food crops such as corn and sugarcane. Speculators have argued for years now that using such crops for fuel can drive up the price of food.

Agave, however, can grow on hot dry land with a high-yield and low environmental impact. The researchers proposing the plant’s use have modeled a facility in Jalisco, Mexico, which converts the high sugar content of the plant into ethanol.

Yet another option is Energy Saving. Most of the Agricultural pump sets in operation are quite old. Now more efficient electric motors are available. The Governments(Union and State) can chalk out a scheme to replace the old irrigation motors with efficient ones with subsidy. In fact in some states power for agriculture is almost free(negligible tariff). Electricity is a High grade energy and in a country hard pressed for power, all means have to be found to utilize it effectively and efficiently.
What is needed in a vast country like ours are decentralised solar systems like solar cookers, solar driers, solar disinfection systems to provide safe drinking water,solar LED lighting systems, solar and wind battery chargers besides energy saving.
Put the RENEWABLES to WORK: To get inexhaustible,pollution-free energy which cannot be misused.
Dr.A.Jagadeesh Nellore(AP),India

please see our new video on roof sheets made from post consumer recycled mixed plastics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYceNBStHnY
regards
Tushar

The current Punjab goverment seems to be going all out to let miners take out all they can from Punjab's soil and share the bounty with them through clandestine unions and dummy bidders. In utter disregard of what happens to sensitive ecologies, the earth is being taken out unscientifically all throughout the state.
Their contention as to doing this will bring down prices of construction material is false, as prices are controlled by monopolistic unions which are backed by powerful and corrupt polititians.

Hi Shuba,

So nice to see a positive article on Solar! Time and situation has changed over the last two years I presume! :)

vijay