solar water heaters study

Viva Voce Presentation

COMMERCIAL EXPLORATION OF SOLAR ENERGY PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTSWith special reference to Solar Water Heaters

Submitted ByV.S.K.VARMA, M.B.A., M.PHIL.,Associate Professor, Department of Management Studies,Maharajahs Post Graduate College, VizianagaramUnder the Guidance of.

DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND MANAGEMENT STUDIESANDHRA UNIVERSITY, VISAKHAPATNAM-530003ANDHRA PRADESH, INDIA2014

Prof. M. LAKSHMIPATHI RAJU, Ph.D (Retired)Research Director,Dept. of Commerce and Management Studies, Andhra UniversityProf. M. MADHUSUDHANA RAO, Ph.D Joint Research Director,Head of the Department,Dept. of Commerce and Management Studies, Andhra University

Need For The StudyEnergy is central to sustainable development of the world. The availability of the energy and the cost at which it is available determine the pace of development whether it is industrial, agricultural or technological development.

The standard of living in a country is also dependent on the per capita consumption of energy. Energy has become a strategic issue and countries have to rely on imports to augment their energy supplies because of the lack of their domestic energy resources.

According to the research studies many of our energy sources are drastically depleting while energy utilization is increasing rapidly which may lead to energy crunch in future.

Production, transport and exploitation of the energy, all have a great impact on environment and ecosystems as well.

Many of the conventional energy sources like coal, oil and natural gas etc. are relatively harmful to the ecological environment because of their high carbon emissions which is the main reason for global warming.

Using renewable energy instead of fossil fuels would significantly decrease the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions which would help prevent stronger climate change impact.

Less foreign oil import. The global oil market has become extremely volatile and our dependence on oil continues to grow. With more emphasis on renewable energy and using domestic renewable energy sources instead of importing foreign oil we would drastically improve our energy security and energy independence.

Renewable energy offers variety of options to choose from as countries can choose between sun, wind, biomass, geothermal energy, water resources, etc.

Excellent potential of renewable energy resources. Our sun for instance has almost unlimited potential. Wind, geothermal, biomass all of these sources have excellent potential to satisfy our energy needs.

Renewable energy can help in electrification of many rural areas in developing world. In many rural areas renewable energy is cheaper energy option to satisfy energy needs compared to traditional energy solutions.

Benefits Of Solar EnergySolar energy is clean energy in that it emits no effluents or pollutants into the atmosphere unlike the thermal energy obtained by the burning of coal.

Solar energy is forever. Unlike fossil fuels, whose stocks are getting depleted everyday without being replenished and which we will exhaust completely within a few decades (unless fresh sources are discovered in the meanwhile).

Solar energy is abundantly available in India from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, the country is blessed with an abundance of sunny days.

Solar energy is modular and scalable. We can have a lantern or a home lighting system of a few watts to megawatt size solar power plants. We can add more power by simply adding more PV modules.

Solar energy can be generated at the point of use, in which case there is no loss in transmission and distribution (T & D). In India, the T&D losses in the case of conventional electricity account for as much as 30% of the actual production. This problem can be obviated by setting up PV panels on rooftops of buildings, minimizing T&D losses as well as by setting up village level solar power plants or plants close to the point of use.

Solar energy technology is simple and quickly implementable requiring no or low gestation period.

There are no rehabilitation issues related to solar power projects as are seen in the case of mega power projects. No need to displace people from their homes and villages. On the contrary every home becomes a solar power producer by setting up a set of PV panels on its rooftop.

While wind energy is limited by geographical locations and can be generated only where wind in good speed is available, solar energy can be generated everywhere, where sunshine is available. The minimum size for a wind energy project is such that it does not lend itself to generation at the level of individuals. Not so with solar energy which can be generated on everyones rooftop or wherever open, shadow-free area is available.

Solar power projects require virtually no maintenance or very little maintenance.. Unlike turbines in wind and hydel projects, there are no moving parts in solar PV power projects. Since there are no moving parts and no inputs required such as oil, coal or gas or even water, solar PV projects have a long shelf life.

Applications Of Solar Power

Solar Photovoltaic Systems (PV)

Solar Thermal Power Plants

Solar Energy Storage Systems

Solar Water heaters

Solar cooker

SPV power plants (Standalone, grid integrated)

SPV lighting systems(lantern, street lighting system, traffic signaling, message display systems )

Solar heat Technology

Solar Photovoltaic Systems (PV)

Photovoltaic conversion is the direct conversion of sunlight into electricity with no intervening heat engine. Photovoltaic devices are simple in design and require very little maintenance. Perhaps the biggest advantage of solar photovoltaic devices is that they can be constructed as stand-alone systems to give outputs from microwatts to megawatts. That is why they have been used as the power sources for calculators, watches, water pumping, remote buildings, communications, satellites and space vehicles, and even multi-megawatt scale power plants.

Solar Thermal Power Plants

Solar Thermal power plants use the heat from converted solar radiation to generate electricity. Like solar panels, they initially capture heat energy through the absorption of solar radiation and like photovoltaic cells, they generate electricity from sunlight.

Solar Energy Storage Systems

The storage of energy from intermittent and random solar radiation can be achieved artificially, by using energy storage technologies (thermal storage, chemically-charged batteries, hydro storage, flywheels, hydrogen, and compressed air), some well-known and widely-applied, whilst others are still under development.

Solar Water heaters

A solar water heating system is a device that uses solar energy to heat water for domestic, commercial, and industrial needs. Heating of water is the most common application of solar energy in the world. A typical solar water heating system can save up to 1500 units of electricity every year, for every 100 litres per day of solar water heating capacity

Solar Cooker Asolar cooker, orsolar oven, is a device which uses the energy of direct sun rays (which is the heat from the sun) to heat, cook orpasteurizefood or drink. The vast majority of solar cookers presently in use are relatively cheap,low-tech devices.

Solar Heat Technology Solar energy can be used to heat air to temperatures needed for most of the drying applications. Solar dryers use air heated through solar energy collectors, which can be installed in modules according to the requirements of hot air. Drying is basically a heat and mass transfer process: moisture from the surface and inside of the product is vaporized, and the vapour is removed by flowing hot air.

SPV power plants

In an SPV power plant, electricity is centrally generated. This electricity is either made available to users through a local grid in a stand-alone mode, or connected to the conventional power grid in a grid-interactive mode. Stand-alone power plants provide grid-quality power locally to people to meet their requirements for lighting and other needs. Power plants are preferred over individual SPV systems if a number of users are in close proximity. The cost of power may be of the order of Rs 15 per kWh for a grid-interactive power plant and higher for stand-alone power plant

Objectives of the studyThe study is conducted with the following objectives.

To review the position of solar energy in general in the world and in India.

To present the role and applications of solar energy.

To present the opinions of solar water heater users, manufacturers and distributors on solar water heater systems.

To analyze the policy of the central and some important state governments on solar exploration in general and solar water heaters in particular.

To identify the problems from solar water heater users view, producers view and distributors view and to make suggestions for an increase in the usage of solar water heaters.

Selection Of The Location For The Study

India has good number of cities with larger population. There are B category cities with more than two million population per city. Among them Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh is the second largest populated city with more than twenty lakhs.

Hoping that the people of Visakhapatnam represent the behavioral pattern of the people of other cities, Visakhapatnam city is identified for study.

Selection Of The Sample For Solar Power Users For Water Heating

Demand for water heating comes from mostly individual households, residents in apartments and hotels/lodges.

In the Visakhapatnam city as at the end of December 2012 according to the information from New and renewable energy development corporation of Andhra Pradesh,(NREDCAP) about 900 apartment buildings,400 individual households and 200 lodges/hotels have installed solar water heaters.

On the whole I have selected 12 percent of them i.e 180.This 180 are picked up at the rate of 90(10 percent of 900 apartment buildings), 40 (10 percent of 400 individual houses) and 50 (25 percent of 200 hotels/lodges).

Collection of data Primary Sources

Primary data has been collected from the individual households, residents of apartments and the proprietors/manager of lodges/hotels through a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire is canvassed to the selected members personally. Further opinions are collected through interviews from owners/managers of the sample unit.

In the production and distribution of the solar water heating systems, the producers and the distributors are also playing a dominant role. To know the quality, performance, price, technology and other aspects of these systems some producers and producer cum distributors are also selected and interviewed through a separate questionnaire and their opinions are also presented in the dissertation.

Secondary Data

The following secondary sources provided useful data regarding the solar energy, its applications, previous researches in the solar Energy sector, and various policies of the central and state governments.Ministry of New and Renewable Energy Sources, Government of India, New Delhi.

The Energy Statistics, Government of India, Ministry of statistics and Programme Implementation.(MOSPI)

The Energy Resources Institute, (TERI) New Delhi.

Akshay-Urja, A Bi-monthly News letter published by Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India.

Solar Energy Centre

Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India, New Delhi.

Indian Council for Social Science Research, New Delhi

New and Renewable Energy Development Corporation of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad.

Annual reports of British Petroleum.

Central Electricity Authority, New Delhi.

Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA)

Limitations Of The Study

The data collected from the consumers of solar water heaters are based on their opinions only which always may not be exact. Some of the users are not willing to share as they are very busy in their personal jobs.

If a bigger sample of users is selected, results could be more realistic. But Because of shortage of time, more number of consumers could not be approached and their opinions could not be collected.

List of solar water heater users is supposed to be available with District level NREDCAP office. But such data were not available with that office. So I approached the main Dealers that supplied Solar Water Heaters. In view of non availability of Government official source of data I used the data from dealers about the list of solar water heater users.

Financial Assistance

General category states for all types of beneficiaries: 30% capital subsidy or loan at 5% interest on 80% of the benchmark cost

Special category states for domestic & non commercial categories (not availing accelerated depreciation): 60% capital subsidy or loan at 5% interest on 80% of the benchmark cost

Special category states for commercial users category (availing accelerated depreciation):30% capital subsidy or loan at 5% interest on 80% of the benchmark cost

Benchmark Cost : ETC based systems : Rs. 10,000/ sq. m.FPC based systems : Rs. 11,000/ sq. m. The Special Category States include Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu & Kashmir and the North Eastern States

**

Actual Amount of Subsidy**

Type of Water Heater Quantity of subsidy (per 100 lpd)General category statesSpecial category statesETC(Evacuated tube collector)4,500Rs/30% of benchmark cost9,000Rs/60% of benchmark costFPC (Flat Plate collector)6,600Rs/30% of benchmark cost13,200Rs/60% of benchmark cost

Future Targets of Government Of INDIADoubling coal Indias production to 100 Cr.tonnes/year by 2020

Power Generation to increase by 50% by 2020.

5 Times increase in renewable capacity to 1,75,000 MW by 2022

Energy saving to increase to 10% of current consumption.

Findings From The Analysis Of Solar Water Heater Users OpinionsDecision behind installing solar water heaterOut of the 180 respondents 63.9 percent of the respondents told that they have voluntarily installed solar water heaters. For the rest of the respondents (36.1 percent) the decision to install solar water heater came out of compulsion.

Further analysis of the data specifies that among the Individual houses 92.5 percent of the households voluntarily decided to install solar water heaters

Among the Apartment Buildings majority of the respondents (60 percent) installed solar water heaters out of compulsion

Out of the total 50 hotels/lodges surveyed 84 percent of the respondents installed solar water heaters on their own.

Reasons Behind The Usage Of Solar Water heatersThe combined opinion of all the respondents across three segments implies that the primary reason behind their option for solar water heater has been the economy of the usage of solar water heater in comparison with other alternatives.

The second significant reason is the usage of solar water heater doesnt cause any pollution.

According to the respondents frequent power cuts and the frequent repairs with electric geezers are the third and fourth significant factors respectively that influenced their decision to go for solar water heaters.

**

Chart1

0.894

0.106

Column1

Type of technology used( for all segments)

Sheet1

Column1

ETC Type Water heaters89.40%

Flat Plate type of solar water heaters10.60%

To resize chart data range, drag lower right corner of range.

**Type Of Technology Used

Chart1

0.8750.125

0.8750.125

0.940.06

ETC

FPC

Sheet1

ETCFTC

individual houses87.50%12.50%

apartment Buildings87.50%12.50%

hotels/lodges94%6%


Water heating systems with/without electricity back up**

Chart1

0.550.45

0.1380.862

0.1030.897

With electricity back up

Without electricity back up

Sheet1

With electricity back upWithout electricity back up

individual houses55%45%

apartment buildings13.80%86.20%

Hotels/Lodges10.30%89.70%


Availability of supplier for repair

**

Chart1

0.894

0.106

Sales

Sheet1

Sales

Satisfied89.40%

Not Satisfied10.60%


Availability of hot water during winter**

Chart1

0.9250.075

0.80.2

0.90.1

Satisfied

Not Satisfied

Sheet1

SatisfiedNot Satisfied

Individual houses92.50%7.50%

residential apartment Buildings80%20%

Hotels/Lodges90%10%


**

Chart1

0.75

0.25

0.075

0.025

people

Retention of heat (in hours) in Individual house segment

Sheet1

people

16 hours75%

14 hours25%

12 hours7.5%

10 hours2.5%


**

Chart1

0.623

0.267

0.088

0.022

Column1

Retention of heat (in hours) in apartment buildings

Sheet1

Column1

16 hours62.30%

14 hours26.70%

12 hours8.80%

10 hours2.20%


**

Chart1

0.64

0.22

0.12

0.02

Column1

Retention of heat (in hours) in Hotels/Lodges

Sheet1

Column1

16 hours64%

14 hours22%

12 hours12%

10 hours2%


Sources of finance for investment on solar water heater

**

Chart1

0.950.05

0.9890.011

0.940.06

Own funds

Loans

Sheet1

Own fundsLoans

Individual houses95%5%

apartment Buildings98.90%1.10%

hotels/Lodges94%6%


Subsidy from the government for solar water heaters

**

Chart1

0.9750.025

0.9550.045

0.880.12

Received subsidy

Did not receive

Sheet1

Received subsidyDid not receive

Individual houses97.50%2.50%

Apartment Buildings95.50%4.50%

Hotels/lodges88%12%


Satisfaction with the functioning of solar water heaters

Among the individual houses segment 85 percent of the consumers are satisfied with the functioning of the solar water heaters.

Among the apartment buildings 86.7 percent of the consumers are satisfied with the functioning of the systems.

Whereas 82 percent of the respondents in the hotels/lodges segment stated that they are satisfied with the functioning of the solar water heaters.

Reasons for dissatisfaction with the functioning of solar water heaters

Among the individual houses segment the consumers thought the prime reason (ranked1) for their dissatisfaction is that the temperature of the water is not enough for them for bathing purpose.

Second reason for their dissatisfaction has been the fact that during the cloudy days they could not get hot water.

Third reason for their dissatisfaction happened to be the frequent repairs.

When it comes to the Apartment Buildings also, the same order of preference is given to the various reasons which are causing dissatisfaction to the consumers.

But for the hotels/lodges segment even though the first and second important reasons for their dissatisfaction are similar, third reason leading to their dissatisfaction of course is the frequent repairs (rank 3) and the least important reason (rank 4) for their dissatisfaction has been the higher initial investment (compared to conventional electric water heater) towards the installation of solar water heater.

Analysis Of Manufacturers/Manufacturers Cum Dealers Opinions

Methods used for tapping demand

Manufacturers have given first priority for advertisement, followed by contacts with the builders as the second priority to tap the demand. The respondents told that they also like to tap the demand by collecting the information from municipality records.

Manufacture/wholesale buying

It is found from the survey that 80 percent of the respondents are making wholesale buying from the manufacturer and selling them to the consumers.

Only 20 percent of the respondents are involved in manufacturing also.

This clearly shows the lack of manufacturing capability in this location to produce solar appliances. There are many business men who are interested in selling the products only.

Sale of single or multiple brands

It has been observed that 33.33 percent of the respondents are selling single brand only.

Remaining 66.67 respondents are selling multiple brands from their outlet.

There will be a definite advantage to sell multiple brands, because it can invite and appeal to more number of customers who are diverse in terms of their tastes and preferences.

Rate of commission offered by the manufacturers

It is observed from the study that 53.3 percent of the respondents replied that they are getting a commission of less than 5 percent.

40 percent of the manufacturers/dealers responded that they are earning a commission/margin of more than 6 percent but less than 10 percent.

6.7 percent of the respondents revealed that they are getting a commission between 10 to 15 percent.

Provision Of Credit To The Customer

73.3 percent of the manufacturers/dealers are allowing credit sales. 26.7 percent of the respondents told that they are selling only on cash basis. If the credit facility is offered by remaining manufacturers/dealers, then potential consumers may come forward to buy the solar water heaters.

It is identified from the study that the customers are interested to buy these systems on installment basis. But no manufacturers/dealers are giving this facility.

Period of credit to the final customers

This information is collected from both manufacturers cum dealers and exclusive dealers.

It is observed that, 20 percent of the respondents are allowing a credit period of 11-20 days for their customers.

40 percent of the respondents stated that they are giving a credit period of 21-30 days for their customers.

40 percent of the dealers/manufacturers are telling that they are giving a credit period of more than one month for their customers.

Rate of interest charged on bank loan60 percent of the respondents who were granted loans stated that 13 percent rate of interest is charged from them. Remaining 40 percent of the respondents told that 14 percent rate of interest are charged from them.

It is found through personal interaction with few manufacturers/dealers, that bankers even though they know that they have to give loans on concessional basis, simply they are thinking that it requires lot of documentation, and the loan amounts are very small and it creates more work and less return.

PotentialThe technical overall potential assuming that 75% of pucca houses of the country occupied by the owners will have solar water heaters could be taken as 140 million sq. m. of collector area.

The achievable/economic potential based on purchasing power of people/ requirement of hot water in a year/ availability of space for installation of system/ availability of solar radiation etc. may, however, be taken as 35-40 million sq. m. of collector area.

Electricity/Diesel SavingsA 100 lpd system (2 sq.m of collector area) installed in a home can save 4-6 units of electricity/day depending on the place of installation & hot water use.

On an average it could be taken as 5 units/day. Maximum average saving with 300 clear days, therefore, could be taken as 1500 units/year.

Assuming 300 days of solar hot water use in Bangalore and 150 days in Delhi, the savings could be 1500 & 750 units per year respectively i.e. replacement of a 2 KW electric geyser working for 2 hours in a day.

Considering all parts of the country and maximum installations in areas where hot water requirement is more during the year, average saving could be taken as 1200 units/year/100 lpd system.

1 million such systems installed will be able to save 1200 million units of electricity/year.

A 100 lpd system (2 sq.m of collector area) installed in an industry can save around 140 litres of diesel in a year.

Peak load shaving1 system of 100 lpd can replace an electric geyser of 2 KW capacity in a home.

1 million such systems will replace 1 million geysers of 2 KW capacity each in homes.

Assuming that at least 50% of geysers are switched on at a time, this will have a peak load shaving of 1000 MW.

CO2 ReductionA 100 lpd system on an average saves up to 1500 units of electricity/yr. To generate that much of electricity from a coal based power plant, 1.5 tone of CO2 /year is released in atmosphere.

One million solar water heating systems installed in homes will , therefore, also result in reduction of 1.5 million tone of CO2 emission in atmosphere.

Suggestions The quality of the glass material used to manufacture the tubes has to be improved as some of the users are complaining that the tubes are frequently broken

In the places where there are more salts in water, over a period of time they have been forming a layer inside the tubes and this has been reducing the heat absorbing capacity of the system. So there should be a water purifying equipment which can desalinate salts from the ground water.

Presently many of the local manufacturers are using less quality material for hot water storage tank because of which the hot water is not available for a longer time.

The material used for covering the storage tank and the connecting pipes (heat absorbers and hot water storage tank) should be good heat insulator so that the water inside them can retain heat for a longer time.

Government has to create more awareness about benefits in the usage of solar water heaters. Government should actively advertise about long term cost savings in terms of reduction in the consumption of electricity and environmental benefits of Solar water heaters

Subsidy should be given at the time of installation itself. Since the subsidy is not given at the time of purchase, the users could not able to feel the economic incentive in purchasing the solar water heater.

Process of claiming subsidy is very time consuming and it should be made simple. Many of the users are wasting their time revolving around the office of NREDCAP (New and Renewable Energy Development Corporation of Andhra Pradesh) for submitting the installation report and for claiming the subsidy from the concerned agencies.

The cost of solar water heaters should be further reduced in order to attract more users. Even though there is a clear long-term cost saving in the installation of solar water heaters, still users are keeping the high initial investment in their minds.

Extensive awareness should be created regarding the subsidy offered by the government Television, print and other media can be used to attract more customers. Dealers and manufacturers can use word of mouth extensively for the promotion of the solar water heaters. Effective after sale service can create satisfaction for the existing users and they will spread the benefits to the public at large.

Municipalities/corporations should give concession in house tax for the users of solar water heaters. These tax rebates can be extended to the commercial establishments such as hotels, restaurants etc. also. The central government may reimburse this loss in revenue to the Municipalities or corporations.

Government should insist banks to advance loans liberally for installing solar water heaters. Banks must be given yearly targets in terms of loans offered to various solar appliances. Further, bankers who are promoting loans to solar appliances may be incentivized.

There must be separate incentives for the manufacturers and dealers of solar water heaters. Incentive/Commission can be offered on every unit sold to motivate the dealers to increase their sales. Government can encourage small and medium scale entrepreneurs to set up the ventures for manufacturing and offering repair services for the solar water heaters so that more employment can be generated by this growing industry.

The state government / local body may make it mandatory for the apartment buildings to install solar water heaters. There used to be a provision of this kind in Andhra Pradesh, but later on the mandatory clause has been removed. It is found from the study, that more apartment buildings constructed during the time of this special provision installed solar water heaters. But later on it has become optional for the builders because of which, the builders are not showing interest for the installation of solar water heaters.

The state government should lead the common public with an example by installing solar water heaters in hotels, lodges and restaurants which are managed by the Tourism department.

****It is observed that Out of the total 180 users that are surveyed 89.4 percent of the users prefer ETC type water heaters. Remaining 10.6 percent of the users are using Flat Plate type of solar water heaters.

*Within the individual houses 87.5 percent preferred ETC type and only 12.5 percent preferred FPC type. Among apartment Buildings also 87.5 percent preferred ETC, and only 12.5 percent of the users preferred FPC.

When it comes to hotels /lodges also the same trend is maintained about 94 percent of the users preferred ETC while 6 percent of the users only preferred FPC.

*Among the individual houses 55 percent of the units have electricity back up, where as among the apartment buildings and Hotels/Lodges segments the percentage of units with electricity back up is comparatively low. In apartment buildings flats it is 13.8 percent and in lodges it is only 10.3 percent.

*During the survey it has been found that overall 89.4 percent of the respondents believe that supplier cum service provider is available whenever the system requires repair.

*In Individual house segment, 92.5 percent of the consumers are satisfied with the availability of hot water, only 7.5 percent of the consumers are not satisfied.When it comes to the segment of residential apartment Buildings only 80 percent of the people (relatively lesser proportion than individual houses) are satisfied with the availability of hot water during the winter. In the Hotels/Lodges segment again 90 percent (relatively higher proportion of consumers than the residential apartment Buildings) of the consumers are satisfied with the availability of hot water during the winter.

*In the individual house segment 65 percent of the people believe that hot water can be retained for 16 hours once it reaches the maximum temperature.25 percent of the respondents are of the opinion that the water can be hot for 14 hours once it reaches the maximum temperature.7.5 percent of the users think that the heat can be retained for a period of 12 hours and remaining 2.5 percent of the users thought that the temperature will remain only for 10 hours.

*Among the apartment buildings also the majority of the users (62.30 percent) believe that temperature is retained for a period of 16 hours.26.70 percent of the respondents thought that the heat can be retained for a period of 14 hours.8.8 percent of the users believe that temperature remains for a period of 12 hours whereas very few users i.e only 2 out of 90 users (2.2 percent) whom I contacted told that the temperature can be retained only for 10 hours.

*In the Hotels/Lodges segment 64 percent of the people told that temperature can be retained for a period of 16 hours in their solar water heaters, 22 percent of the customers told that the temperature stays for a period of 14 hours, whereas 12 percent of the customers told during the survey that temperature stays only for 12 hours and very few respondents (only 2 percent) opined that the temperature can be retained only for a period of 10 hours.

*Among the Individual houses segment 95 percent of the consumers used their own funds for buying the water heaters. Among the apartment Buildings also 98.9 percent of the users have used their funds only, whereas 94 percent of the consumers in the hotels/Lodges segment also used their own funds.

*Among the Individual houses, 97.5 percent of the consumers received subsidy while buying the solar water heaters.

Among the Apartment Buildings, 95.5 percent of the respondents are in receipt of subsidy

whereas among the Hotels/lodges 88 percent of the respondents have received subsidy for buying solar water heaters.

*

solar water heaters study

Documents