Solar Energy Utilization Opportunities and

Challenges in North Eastern Region by Debasish

Choudhury
Energy has always been a driving force in the development of human culture, living
style, and the overall development since ages but it reached new heights during the
later half of the 20th century and at its peak during first decades of the 21st century.
One cant predict its height and peak of development and thus it is a continuing
process. If we go back to the history of energy utilization, it can be broadly
categorized into the wood era, coal era, and the present oil era based on the
utilization of energy sources.
Although energy was present in many forms since inception of life on earth or even
before it, its end-use applications have been discovered and modified from time-to-
time by the mankind. The energy available in nature around us, that is, sun, wind,
flowing water, woody material from tree, crop waste, and so on is being utilized for
various end use applications since ages but their mode and methods of utilization
have changed/improved as the technologies developed from time to time. The present
use of renewable energy available from sun, wind, flowing water, woody material,
and waste involves the developed technologies, systems, and devices commercially
available in the market. There is a need for changing the attitude in adopting
renewable energy devices in our daily life, which will also ensure our contribution
towards mitigating GHG emissions and global warming as well.
In the global energy scenario in NER is in the primitive stage of the
transitional phase from fossil-based to renewable energy-based society. The
unprecedented publicity of renewable energy resources, characteristics, status
of development and potential has transformed the energy scenario into RE-based
world. RE transition is now a demand of the 21st century. No country in the world can
survive keeping itself away from this transition. We are determined to create an
enabling environment for the effective development of RE technology in the country
on line with the development in the rest of the world. The national seminar on
Solar Energy Utilization Opportunities and Challenges in NER is
simply a step forward to that objective. In this phase, various issues and potentials of
solar energy have been addressed.
The present situation of solar energy in NER has been talked out to get an
overview of this scenario. All the contributory papers presented in this seminar could
bring us new opportunities to set up solar energy based projects in NER. The ideas
enunciated in this Seminar encompasses all the crucial areas required for rapid
growth of infrastructure as well as technology to pursuit the objective of meeting the
twin challenges-development and environment through sustainable future energy.