It is already established that coal-powered power plants are one of the most prominent sources of pollution.?According to research?from 2014, Of the estimated annual anthropogenic emissions in India, the thermal?power plants?account for around 15 percent for PM2.5, around 30 percent for NOx (nitrous oxide), and around 50% of SO2 (sulphur dioxide).?
And let¡¯s not forget it runs on coal -- a fossil fuel that¡¯s getting depleted by the minute and mining it itself takes a heavy toll on the environment.?
But it looks like all this could come to a gradual halt as the world¡¯s largest coal miner -- Coal India has said in a statement that it is looking to dive into the field of solar wafer manufacturing while also aggressively participating in the nation's solar energy auctions.?
This was revealed in a statement by the company¡¯s chairman, Pramod Agarwal in a conversation with Reuters. He revealed that its joint venture in collaboration with state-backed NLC India is looking to invest around 125 billion rupees in solar power projects with a capacity of 3,000 megawatts. From this, 60 billion rupees will be invested by Coal India by March 2024.?
On the other hand, Coal India also revealed that the company plans on shutting down small mines while also refraining from opening mines that would require mass hiring. He stated that in a span of three years until March 2020, it has shut down 82 mines while also slashing its workforce by 18,600.
Agarwal told Reuters, ¡°Coal as you know, we¡¯re going to lose business in the next two, three decades. Solar will take over (from) coal slowly as a major energy provider in the coming years. We are just exploring the possibilities where we can invest in solar wafer production, nobody is (currently) there in the country.¡±
The report also highlights that India as of now only makes solar cells, not wafers. To encourage the manufacturing of solar equipment in India, authorities are planning on levying custom duties on some equipment starting in April 2022.?
Solar panels consist of solar cells that absorb the sunlight to turn that into electricity. However, for that absorption, solar cells comprise solar wafers or silicon wafers.?
According to Sinovoltaics, these silicon wafers are made out of pure silicon that is generated by the reduction and purification of impure silicon dioxide that¡¯s found in quartz.
For this, quartz is heated in a special furnace where a carbon electrode is added to generate a high-temperature electric arc between the electrode and silicon dioxide. This process is referred to as carbon arc welding and it reduces oxygen from silicon dioxide and produces CO2 at the electrode and molten silicon.
This process makes the molten silicon 99 percent. However, it¡¯s still not ready to be used in solar cells. To purify the one percent, it is put through the floating zone technique where the silicon is passed through a heated tube repeatedly which eventually pushes the one percent impurity out.?
Later the pure silicon is turned into a cylindrical silicon ingot through several processes, depending on the requirements, which is shaped into rectangular or hexagonal shape (depending on the solar cell) using a multi-wire saw.
Coal India's longterm shift away from fossil fuels to embrace sustainable growth in solar energy industry is definitely good news for reducing polluting sources of energy to clean energy generation from sun's light, which should hopefully arrest runaway global warming and climate change effect as well.