Some of India's young and bright technologists are working on developinghybrid, off-grid solutions in solar energy space, that's expected to bring downelectricity costs significantly and help suppy power without transmissionlines.

Around 50 students drawn from various Indian Institutes of Technology havealready had four-five "brainstorming" sessions, Secretary in theDepartment of Science and Technology, T Ramasami told PTI here.

"Fifty students from IITs is a pretty good number, and they are brightguys", he said.

Supported by the private sector industy and some other institutions, the hybridsolutions being developed are expected to be viable, he said, adding, theproject is slated to be completed this month or May.

Ramasami explained that in the present-day system, to generate one megawatt ofpower, one needs Rs 20 crore investment and even then the cost of deliveredpower is high.

"So, instead of looking at bringing it down in a short-term, we arelooking at hybrid where you don't have to store electricity", Ramasamisaid. "That, let's say, you use biofuel as a right option".

"There are several places in the country which do not have thetransmission lines. So, (with these solar hybrid solutions) you don't have tosyncronise power to power electronics and mount on it", he said, adding,the off-grid and mini-grid solutions would be helpful in areas withouttransmission lines.

He said the aim is to bring down the electricity cost to Rs nine per kilo watthour (from the current level of Rs 20). "Rs nine is what it will cost fordiesel power. So, they (the team members) are working on bringing it to thatlevel".