From innovative boat designs to fisheries, solar technology is being widely adopted in the country’s fishing industry.
It was a few years after the 2004 tsunami. Fisherman and YouTuber M Sakthivel, 29, vividly remembers the day when the main street in his shanty in Tamil Nadu’s coastal town of Thoothukudi was lit with five solar-powered lamp posts. “Till then, electricity was something we had only heard about. After sunset, all our work was done with the help of kerosene,” recalls Sakthivel.
Today, Sakthiwell has become a champion of sorts for affordable home electrification projects that use solar power panels. He has invested his earnings from his YouTube channel Thoothukudi Meenavan – which has more than seven lakh subscribers – to set up nine domestic solar power units (costing between ₹15,000 to ₹60,000) in his colony and more to come. Looking forward to installing some more in time. Week.
Thoothukudi-based M Sakthivel, a fisherman and YouTuber, is a champion of solar power in his neighbourhood. , photo Credit: special arrangement
boats are a blessing
In Kochi, Kerala, boat maker NavAlt, in collaboration with Shell Foundation UK, is experimenting with ideas for small solar fishing vessels. Having already tasted success with its Adityasour-powered taxi ferries in Kerala, NavAlt is looking forward to come up with boats that are a sustainable alternative to the existing boats that run on outboard engines powered by petrol and kerosene. will provide.
“A traditional three-foot fishing boat uses 3,600 liters of petrol or diesel when it is operated five hours a day for 240 days a year. In the operation of about two and a half lakh boats, about one million liters of fuel are consumed, leading to two million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per boat per year,” says Sandith Thandassery, CEO, NAVALT.
“We are focusing on fishermen groups in Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, where at least four million people are engaged in short-range fishing. The insufficient size of the catch does not justify the high operating cost of these boats. Solar power is one of the best clean energy options for them,” he added.
Solar power projects have become a tool of empowerment among rural and remote communities, especially those that have never been on the traditional electricity grid.
Figures published by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy show that with about 300 sunny days a year, India’s land area can be used to generate about 5,000 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh) annually. According to the International Energy Agency renewable energy 2020 According to the report, the country has the fifth largest installed solar power capacity in the world, with 38 gigawatts (GW) in 2019, and 54 TWh of electricity generation.
Removing fossil fuels from the picture is one way to signal a more eco-friendly way of operating traditional businesses like fishing.
While the fuel cost of a conventional boat comes up to ₹30 lakh, for a solar boat, it is less than ₹1 lakh per year.
“We want to see if we can achieve the same thing in the fishing sector. We are currently working on six models, (three each) mono-hull and catamaran boats, which are used by fishermen in coastal districts. Trials are underway. If they can be assured about the initial high cost of a solar boat which will eventually pay for itself after a few years, we can expect our target price to be under ₹10 lakh ,” Thandasery elaborated.
NavAlt prototypes use materials such as aluminum and glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) and have flexible solar panels for stability, an electric steering unit and twin outboard motors. The model is also assisted by wind power equipment for night use.
A modular battery design helps with both portability and noisy charging.
improve communication
Like most traditional businesses, a fair amount of technology has come into the fishing industry. Fishermen are more likely to use GPS and apps to find fishing spots rather than relying on old-fashioned methods honed through years of experience and native knowledge. Industry data says that despite its benefits, solar power has not made much progress in small-scale fishing for a number of reasons.
“Money is needed to market and educate people about solar energy. Fishermen are not using solar energy in their boats. In fact, two fishermen removed solar panels from their boats while revising their boat design,” explains Vincent Jain, deputy chief executive, South Indian Society of Fishermen Association (SIFFS), at Karamana, Thiruvananthapuram, which translates to approximately There is a group of 60,000 fishermen. Nadu and Kerala.
“The wide availability of small oil-fuelled generators, which cost only ₹25,000 compared to solar panels costing over ₹2 lakh, has made many fishermen go for cheaper alternatives. It would be better to look at solar power as an auxiliary rather than the main source of electricity on a boat,” says Jain.
Companies need to make solar tech products more financially viable, especially if they want to achieve faster and greater adoption of small-scale fishing in Tier 2 and Tier 3 communities. “Storing batteries and charging with solar power adds a lot of value without having to run on petrol or diesel,” explains Rahul Kale, founder-CEO of SunPower Renewables, an Australian developer of renewable energy solutions. The company’s handheld and grid-connected products are being used in fishing and leisure vessels in Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia.
It’s important to be consistent with fishing techniques, says Kale. “In Indonesia, the units have been used in prawn fishing. When the fishermen go into the water, some of them have a small inbuilt torch or lamp. It comes in handy at night, and is silent and eco-friendly, which is essential for lobster fishing,” he says.
While the company’s pre-pandemic presence in India was limited to B2B segments in mining, hospitality and healthcare, SunPower Renewables is now looking at B2C solutions in e-commerce and through online merchants such as Amazon and Croma. Marketing the products.
Innovative technology has allowed solar power products to be used beyond the time of day. “Traditional solar power products can only be used during the daytime, when sunlight is available, leaving a backup for diesel-based generators of heavy battery inverters. But when you have the option of storing solar energy, as in our products, they become very useful in many areas,” comments Kale. “We are selling portable solar panels that fold when you fold. shrink down to the size of a briefcase. Ultimately, the product has to be customized to suit the users.”
For the fisherman Sakthivel, who has replaced the traditional cornice When he goes fishing kerosene torches with solar lamps, the change is a constant which he also chronicles through his YouTube channel.
“Earlier, we used to tear off old clothes, because we were so poor that we could not buy lamps to buy our kerosene lamps. Now, we let the solar lamps charge at home during the day, and take them on our fishing trips at night. Since my ancestors started fishing, many things have changed, from the size of the fish to the material used for the net; But solar power has been a definite plus. I get excited even when I turn on the lights,” he laughs.
Solar cell panels are being installed on the thatched roof of a house in the fishing township of Sakthivel. , photo Credit: special arrangement
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