Solar Thermal in Leh and Kargil

The Ladakh Region of Jammu and Kashmir, with its extreme environment, faces enormous energy adversities throughout the year which become even more acute during the winter months. The ‘Ladakh Renewable Energy Initiative’ scheme of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has been launched especially to accelerate widespread use of solar thermal systems for heating, cooking, and steam generating applications. The implementing agencies are Kargil Renewable Energy Development Agency (KREDA) in Kargil and Ladakh Renewable Energy Development Agency (LREDA) in Leh District of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Remarkable Achievements

Till November 2016, KREDA has installed 6,700 solar water heating systems (SWHs) covering an area of 9,000 sq. m collector area for individual households, government institutions, and commercial units in the Kargil region. There is a growing awareness and demand for SWH systems in the region. LREDA has installed 2,150 units of dish-type solar cookers; 20,384 sq. m of solar water heaters; 750 numbers of commercial green houses; 2,500 domestic green houses; and 5 units of solar steam cooking system CST-based having 320 sq. m area.

Solar Green House

Kargil has a natural advantage of receiving plenty of sunshine in the winter months. Based on this, KREDA as per MNRE guidelines, introduced green house in the district. This technique is indigenous using locally available materials. The ‘green house’ is designed to maximize the solar absorption in the day and to minimize the heat loss at night.

Solar Thermal in Leh and Kargil

Solar Steam Cooking System in Leh MNRE has sanctioned nine steam cooking systems, each with an aperture area of 64 m2. It was found that five out of these nine systems having collector area of 320 sq m. were successfully completed and handed over to the beneficiary.

Source: Akshay Urja Magazine, MNRE