Guest Lecture on Solar Energy

Anand Engineering College Agra has organised a guest lecture on Solar Energy. The speaker was Dr Chetan Singh Solanki from IIT Mumbai.

Dr. Shailendra Singh, Director of the College welcomed Dr. Solanki by presenting a bouquet. He said that Dr. Chetan Singh Solanki, a professor from IIT Bombay, brand ambassador of Solar Energy for Govt. of MP, and Founder of the Energy Swaraj Foundation is a well known Environment activist who has pledged not to go home until 2030 and live & travel in the solar bus.

In his speech Dr Solanki said that Energy Swaraj – an Essence of Sustainability Energy is Everything and Everything is Energy. Gandhiji’s statement that “Earth has enough for everybody’s need but not for anybody’s greed” is as fundamental as the fact Sun rising from the East. However, in contradiction, the world economies are increasingly trying to produce more and consume more. This contradiction is fuelled mainly by fossil energy(80-85%), leading to another contradiction wherein increasing energy consumption is required to maintain economic growth, while rampant use of fossil energy is causing climate change. Climate change is threatening not only sustainable life but the sustainability of life on the planet. We have only 8-10 years left before we reach global warming of 1.5oC (IPCC report). Therefore “drastic” and “immediate” actions are required to mitigate climate change. The solution lies in adopting Energy Swaraj or generating and consuming energy locally. Adopting Energy Swaraj will also help in skill development, livelihood creation, energy independence, local economy strengthening, and of course, climate change mitigation. The Event was coordinated by Prof Atul Narang and Vote of thanks was proposed by Prof Rahul Agarwal.