The Solar Reincarnation of NEPC

"NEPC launches world's first solar power house". After I saw this headline and read the related story and also this one I googled up "Solar NEPC", and guess what I found? This!

Yes thats a post The Indic View carried over a year and a half ago. We spoke about three companies there, among them NEPC and Suzlon. Since then Suzlon has gone public making Tulsi Tanti one of the richest men in India. NEPC on the contrary never could regain the pole position it once enjoyed in the fledgling wind power industry in the country and decided to exit it altogether. Late last year they announced that they were getting into renewables again and were working on a hybrid power system, "using solar cell, windmill, fuel cell technology".

Apparently that is the product they launched today, and it is either called "Power House" or "NEPC Power". The 500W version of the product is priced at Rs 100,000 (~USD 2400) while the 1KW one is priced at Rs 200,000. Over the next 2-3 months the company plans to launch 5 KW and 10KW versions too.

Despite claiming strong export potential they would first like to concentrate on the domestic market primarily, "eyeing power-hungry states like Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana for its solar products". While a patent has been applied for on this product, the company has budgeted Rs 550 million (~USD 13 m) for further research, development and production during 2007.

Lets hope this would be a big boost for commercialization of renewable technologies in India. Wind power is going strong, but it is generally expected to plateau at the 20 GW level from the 6 GW of today. There is no such limit on solar power. Apart from strong marketing NEPC could do well to keep an eye on promising new technologies being developed worldwide, as solar cells get cheaper and more powerful.

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India Solar Power Update
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India's Renewable Energy SEZ