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Punjab harnessing solar power in fields, targets 1,000 MW in two years
Chandigarh: Punjab, which produces a major share of the country’s foodgrain, is all set to tap solar power in the agricultural fields in a big way, aiming to generate 1,000 MW, up from the current 225 MW, by 2017, a minister has said.
“We are far ahead of many states to get investments in clean energy. Our aim is to tap 1,000 MW solar energy either from rooftop projects or from the fields by 2017,” Renewable Energy Minister Bikram Singh Majithia told.
“We have just launched a scheme in which we are encouraging the farmers to set up solar power plants ranging from 1 MW to 2.5 MW in the fields to promote clean energy,” Majithia, the brother-in-law of Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, added.
In less than two months since launching the “Land on Lease” scheme, more than 3,500 acres have been offered by farmers to investors for setting up the solar projects.
Majithia said solar energy is one of the most abundant sources in the state, which averaged around 300 sunny days annually.
Officials of the state-run Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA) say there has been a 25-fold increase in the solar power production in the state in just two years.
Currently, 225 MW has been tapped with an investment of around Rs.1,500 crore ($235 million). In 2012, it was just nine MW.
Majithia said a major chunk of the investment is coming from NRIs (non-resident Indians).
“NRIs alone have commissioned 42.30 MW solar power projects with an outlay of Rs.244 crore,” he said.
As per the latest scheme, a farmer can give land on lease after PEDA approval for 30 years at an annual lease Rs.35,000 to Rs.50,000 per acre with a five percent annual escalation.
“The lease amount would be an additional income for the farmers, who constitute 60 percent of the state’s total population. They could also cultivate certain crops on land where the solar panels would be set up,” Majithia said.
According to him, new projects of 229 MW capacity at an investment of Rs.2,100 crore have been granted clearance by the government.
Five acres of land and investment of Rs.5 crore is required for installing a 1 MW solar power plant. If a farmer wants, he can easily get a bank loan up to Rs.5 crore, a PEDA official told IANS.
A rooftop solar plant requires 100 sq ft of space.
Under the net-metering policy announced in November 2014, PEDA has got requests from 1,046 households for setting up solar plants. Net-metering measures the amount of power a household utilises and the amount it feeds into the state grid, for which it gets paid by the state government.
The minister had inaugurated a 2.10 MW solar plant owned by US-based NRI Ranbir Singh Chhina of Abundant Energy Private Ltd in a village located near the India-Pakistan border in Tarn Taran district on May 30.
With an investment of Rs.16.40 crore, this was the state’s first large-scale investment project in the fields.
The Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd will purchase electricity from the solar power producers. It has fixed Rs.7.04 per unit, a price that has been frozen for 25 years – the duration of agreement between the power corporation and the producer.
India’s largest rooftop plant of 7.5 MW at Radha Soami Satsang in Beas near Amritsar is all set to be expanded to 31.5 MW to become perhaps the world’s largest rooftop plant.
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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