Chasing the Sun

The sun has been many things to humankind, and the ancients understood its magnificent power well. They worshipped it in a myriad of ways, not only as a source of light, but of life and growth. Of wisdom and spiritual healing. Without understanding science the way we do today, they figured out that if Earth lives, it is because of this bright star. From animistic practices to organized religions, it became a God with mythologies of its own, as Ra, Surya, or Apollo.

In the last few decades, we have learned that the sunlight which falls on the earth’s surface every hour, is enough to meet the entire world’s energy needs for one year. We have seen that we can harness this energy during the day to make our nights more productive and social, and often, warmer; to make our schools and hospitals run, to power up our industries. We have understood that the sun could save our earth: we have seen its real power.

Organisations like Tata Power Solar have begun to look at the sun and its endlessness energy from a different perspective. This book commemorates the 25-year journey of TPS in enabling solar solutions across India, from huge industrial installations that power whole regions, to household and community-level solutions that transform lives of the remotest and the neediest populations across the country.

The book showcases evocative images and stories of real people and their real progress in far-flung places in India as solar power makes their lives easier and more productive.

India pays regular homage to the sun with ubiquitous images on vehicles, electricity poles, temples and walls of homes. The motifs can be religious or kitschy, purely aesthetic or popular art, but essentially they are representations of the revered elements, of which the sun has the highest place.

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