Punjab today took a major step to realize the dream of augmenting 1000 MW solar power in next there years as it decided to join hands with US company Lockheed Martin, that would provide plastic structures for solar panels on canals by using nano-technology. The company would also provider state of art technology to convert paddy straw into energy soloing the lingering problem of paddy straw burning in the state.This decision was taken in a meeting between Punjab Non-Conventional Energy Minister Mr. Bikram Singh Majithia and three member high level team of Lockheed Martin comprising Mr. Phil Shaw, CEO, Mr. Tushar Shah. Chief Innovation Officer and Mr. Jagmohan Singh , Regional Director. Mr. Anirudh Tewari, Secretary Power and reneable Energy and Dr. Amar Pal Singh CEO, PEDA also took part in the meeting. The Punjab government and a renowned US company Lockheed Martin would ink a MoU in this regard .
Interacting with the company CEO Mr. Majithia said that he was moving with the similar mission to meet 15% demand of energy of the state form the clean energy and was hopeful that with the nano technology solar panel developed by US compay, the Punjab would be able to make solar power generation cost effective, attracting international investors to invest in this area.
Majithia pointed out that the state was facing a serious issue of burning of paddy stubble causing a major damage to the fertility of land as well as polluting the environment. He said that it could only be taken care of if the farmers could get some return in lieu of their agricultural residue. He said it becomes imperative to develop an efficient and affordable technology to turn it in energy thereby serving the dual purpose of producing clean energy as well as paying back some monetary benefits to the farmers. He further said that Punjab with just having 2 % of total geographical area of country and purely agri-based economy, it has scarcity of land for big renewable energy projects. Our government has decided to explore around 5000 Kms of canal lengths for putting solar panels but due to heavy cost of structures, it becomes unviable. He said that if Lockheed Martin could develop cheaper but durable plastic structures then this area has a huge potential to be harnessed in future. He said that number of companies were interested in management of solid municipal waste, but the State government was ready to offer Lockheed Martin to set up a demonstration project of 1-2 MW.
Taking part in the deliberations, Mr. Phil Shaw, CEO informed the Minister that their company has come out with waste to energy conversion solutions with successful conversion of waste products to electricity, heat and fuel by using gasification processes. He said that it was an environmentally friendly green recycling technology which requires low space requirement technology and these plants were fully automated. He said that wood chips, agri-waste, sewage sludge, plastics, municipal solid waste and hospital waste could be used for these plants. On this occasion, Mr. Tushar Shah, Chief Innovation Officer said that they have also developed a technology for making durable and affordable plastic by using nano-technology for using it for making structures of solar panels for canals.