Gadhia takes solar cooking to Ladakh

Valsad-based Gadhia Solar Energy Systems Pvt Ltd (Gadhia Solar), maker of solar steam cookers, boasts of being the first company in the country to provide solar steam cooking systems to soldiers in Ladakh.

The company is also expanding its presence following proposals from corporates in the country as well as abroad from Nepal to China to set up similar systems in their respective countries.

At Ladakh, the company has established a solar steam cooker system with a capacity of making 1,000 meals a day, which would feed 500 soldiers.

The solar steam cooking system based on Scheffler Solar Concentrators, has been pioneered by the company with technical assistance from HTT GmbH of Germany and funding from GATE/GTZ, also of Germany.

The system has been installed at a cost of Rs 14.64 lakh, of which the natural resources and environment ministry has offered 40 per cent subsidy while the Centre has offered an additional subsidy of 35 per cent.

"Solar steam cooking is taking off in a major way in the country with its environment and health cost benefits slowly being understood. Also, with the government offering up to 75 per cent subsidy on the installation of a solar steam cooking system, many corporates in the country are in the process of shifting to solar systems," Deepak Gadhia, promoter of Gadhia Solar, told Business Standard.

The company has quite a strong hold in dealing with community solar cookers, which are increasingly being opted by religious communities.

It has installed a solar steam cooking system with a capacity of feeding 1,000 people at the Brahma Kumaris' Ashram at Mount Abu, followed by the installation of the world's largest solar steam cooking system for them at their Taleti Ashram in Abu Road in Rajasthan, which cooks up to 35,000 meals a day.

Other community installations include at Tirumal Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), Tirupati, to cook for 15,000 people as well as one at Sri Saibaba Santhan, Shirdi, to cook for 3,000 people per day among others.

Even as it gets ready to install a solar steam cooking system in Nepal, to be functional from March 2007, Gadhia Solar has been working on plenty of requests from China.

Back home, corporates and educational institutes are making a beeline to get a solar steam cooker system installed. Recently, a solar steam cooking system was installed at Sanghi Industries, Hyderabad, for their industrial canteen to cook for 500 workers while the same was installed at Rishi Samskruti Vidya Kendra near Bangalore and at the Rishi Valley School, Madanapally, for 500 students respectively.

"With people now realising that you can be in Ladakh and still enjoy the benefits of solar energy, they have starting floating requests to install the solar systems at their work facilities and homes. In places like Ladakh, the solar steam systems function with availability of light and are as effective as they would be in the summer of Rajasthan," said Gadhia.

Gadhia Solar has collected 5,500 tonnes of gold standard carbon credits, which have been sold to the German government.

The company has also begun working on developing other applications for solar concentrators in close co-operation with the inventors of the solar steam cooker, Seifert and Wolfgang Scheffler, to make them locally more accessible and affordable, added Gadhia.