Capturing sunlight in a bottle and using it when needed

Thanks to the initiatives of UNESCO and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), most countries across the world have adopted ‘green’ solutions that reduce environmental carbon dioxide. The use of solar panels to capture sunlight and turn it into electricity has been a particularly successful strategy. Many countries across the world have seen a large-scale expansion in the installation of solar panels.

In India, a typical home solar panel installation connected to the grid today costs about Rs. 30,000 per kW after subsidies under the ‘Surya Ghar Mufti Bijili Yojana’. A 2-kW system can cover the basic electricity needs of a typical household. And there are crores of such panels across the country. India’s rooftop solar capacity is now 23 gigawatt (GW).