Role of Indian Meteorological Department in harnessing wind, solar energy stressed

Visakhapatnam: Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) director general K Jayaram Ramesh predicted that there would be a plenty of opportunities across the country in the fields of non-conventional energy, agriculture and allied sectors in near future.

He said that with the massive changes in the environment, the needs too have been changing and the IMD was also striving to predict the changes in climates much in advance. The Indian Metrological Society (IMS) , Visakhapatnam Chapter, organised Prof. Rokkam Ramanatham memorial lecture on Weather, Climate and Hazard Warning Services in India–Developments, Opportunities and Challenges at Andhra University on Thursday.  

Delivering the keynote address, Jayaram Ramesh said that in recent times, solar and wind power generation had increased phenomenally across the country. Currently, 60 gigawatt power was being produced per day from solar and wind power. With the IMD successfully predicting the temperatures and severity of the sunlight, the solar power generation was being streamlined in the country, he said.

According to Jayaram Ramesh, currently 24 popular weather radars were working to forecast weather related changes and 22 more radars would come into operations soon. With this, the department would predict the changes in the climate every half-an-hour and also the movement of the clouds with digital data. With the IMD’s advanced alerts about heavy rains, heatwaves and other disasters, the human loss was minimised at a great extent, Ramesh explained.

Andhra University vice-chancellor Prof.G Nageswara Rao recalled the services of Prof.Rokkam Ramnatham services to the university. Secretary, IMS, Visakhapatnam Chapter and head, Oceanography, Prof.Suneetha and principal, Science College, T Vinoda Rao and other professors also spoke.