Sustainability: solar energy is the way forward

Citation

Yadav, S.S. and Shankar, R. (2015), "Sustainability: solar energy is the way forward", Journal of Advances in Management Research, Vol. 12 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/JAMR-08-2015-0058

Sustainability: solar energy is the way forward

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Advances in Management Research, Volume 12, Issue 3.

Sustainable development wherein 3Ps (profit, people and planet) have to be given due importance by all who matter in decision making is no longer a fashionable word, but has become a necessity today. Human race is facing serious threat from climate change and global warming, and therefore, there is a need to think of new ways to meet daily needs of energy with less and less pollution, which happens because of many reasons but mainly due to the over-use of fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum products and natural gases.

With minor variations between different countries, the largest percentage of power is produced in thermal form using fossil fuels. The alternate sources are hydroelectric, biomass, wind, geothermal and solar. Of these, the solar energy can be harnessed to meet the energy needs of the world as a whole. As a matter of fact, the sun is the only net original source of energy for the planet earth. Directly or indirectly all the other forms of energy exist because of the sun. The wind moves because of temperature differences, created by the sun. The same goes for thermal sources. The fossils have absorbed the sun’s energy over a long period of time and now exist as repository of that energy. So the challenge before the human race, today, is to tap this perennial and ultimate source of energy directly.

Some efforts have started in this direction in different countries of the world. Germany is one example where rooftop solar panels generate power. This power is fed to the conventional power grid. The owner of the rooftop panel gets compensated for the power fed to the grid and, thus, is able to reduce his/her power bill. In order to encourage the generation of solar power, it is priced little higher than the average tariff for power drawn from the grid. Wide spread use of solar power has a potential to replace, in a great measure, or even completely, the use of fossil-fuel-based power as well as nuclear power.

Since the rooftop solar panels require initial capital investment, there is a need to think of ways to finance this requirement. If the governments, the world over, were to take this initiative as a priority, the financing can be easy. The banks and financial institutions would be willing to give loan to individuals as well as institutional establishments to buy rooftop solar panels. In doing so, they would earn returns on their advances as they do for any other feasible investment activity.

In course of time, it may not even be necessary to give higher price to solar power produced by rooftop panels and fed to the grid. The price would reduce automatically when the solar power is generated on a wider scale. For example, in India, Delhi, the capital city, can shift to solar rooftops and has a potential to generate much more solar power than its current need for power, which is about 6,000 MW. Equally, the remote villages where sunshine is bright throughout the year can be powered by solar energy.

Here, there is an opportunity for manufacturing sector as well. There is a need to manufacture sufficient solar power panels for those who want to use them. The demand for these will increase as more and more homes/institutions take to solar power. Since there are not many manufacturers currently, those who will like to move into this manufacturing activity will have "the first-mover advantage." Other requirement, of course, is the availability of skill sets to install and maintain the rooftop panels. Again this is to be seen as an opportunity to create jobs for younger people.

Thus, a conscious shift to the use of solar power has several advantages: first, availability of green, pollution-free energy; second, opportunity for banks and financial institutions to advance loans and earn return; third, opportunity for manufacturing companies to make profit by making solar cells; and fourth, creation of jobs for youth. Management researchers may like to take up issues of "how" and "why" of this radical shift to solar energy.

Surendra S. Yadav and Ravi Shankar