Let me, out of curiosity, quote from a recent e-mail message received by me from a Florida engineer: “Florida’s biggest utility announced Wednesday a $2.4 billion energy plan that includes building what would be the world’s largest solar-power plant in the Sunshine State.”

We have limitless solar potential going waste, while little Nepal has been using it in a small way for decades! Colonial nuclear mendicancy is a humiliation.

Bharat Jhunjhunwala writes recently in a daily: “The alternative of wind power is yet more attractive. It is previously mentioned that the cost of one KwH power generated from wind sources is Rs 2.40 against Rs 400 plus from other sources. This source of energy has an added advantage that it can be used in remote areas. Wind turbines, solar panels and biogas equipment can be installed in community halls or houses in villages. The International Atomic Energy Agency says in its press release that proponents of nuclear energy agree that for the rural poor, “the best promise may be that offered by off-grid renewables. There is no gain-saying that wind, solar and bio energy is more suited for vast rural areas of our country.”

The 5th World Wind Energy Conference 2006 sums up what is relevant here: “The Indian government has assigned the ministry for non-conventional energy sources to electrify 25,000 rural Indian villages based on renewable energy. WWEA welcomes this programme as a milestone for rural development worldwide. The 5th World Wind Energy Conference 2006 (WWEC 2006) under the theme ‘Energy Independence powered by Wind’ will attract experts from around the world to discuss how to implement such ambitious wind energy programmes for the benefit of human development.

... contd.