ahmedabad imagine a house running only on solar energy from water heater to every light bulb this thought could turn into a reality soon with a sharp rise in number of takers for this alternative and green power sourceadvanced solar appliances have become popular among educational institutes and corporate houses to generate thermal and electric energy school of solar energy a constituent of pandit deen dayal petroleum university in gandhinagar is researching photovoltaic cell a device that directly converts sunlight into electricity which could bring down the cost of using solar energy they are not alone indian institute of management in city iima has installed solar street lights in the campus intas biopharma has started with a borocell solar heating panel for their kitchen facilities and even ahmedabad municipal corporation has plans for solar powered street lights in amc gardens general manager projects engineering of intas biopharma satish kolte says not only is solar energy an environmentfriendly option it also cuts on costs in the long run we started with this solar prototype two months ago in our kitchen and so far it has given good resultswe will be using solar energy in all our upcoming plants we believe industries can tap into this freely available large source of energy adds kolterecently gujarat government also announced solar power policy 2009 to promote solar power generation as an alternative source of energysatish deshpande a solar power expert has been using solar energy in his home since the last 12 years and now prefers to cook his lunch in his solar concentrator deshapande says it makes economic sense to embrace itakshat khare a young entrepreneur has started a solarbased lighting system to promote the use of solar energy we have installed solar streetlights at iima sewa and at other organisations in city he says