FEATURE - Solar power competes with diesel, dung in Himalayas - Yahoo! News: "LEH, India (Reuters) - The Tibetan monk fingers his beads as he climbs up the stone steps of a 1,000-year-old monastery perched on a hilltop spur overlooking the Himalayas.
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The rooftop is bare and drab like the surrounding hills, save for a low wall adorned with painted tridents, ancient symbols of power. The only sign of modernity is a solar panel.
Many of the monasteries, or gompas, lining Ladakh's Indus valley, in northwest India near China, boast a small blue rectangle of photo-voltaic technology. Standing 3,500 metres high (11,480 ft) they have the advantage of being closer to the sun than many other inhabited places.
'There's a lot of scope as we have over 300 days of sun a year here, and average solar radiation is high,' said Tashi Chombel, an engineer in Ladakh's local government.
Solar power is mostly used for night-time lighting rather than to keep Ladakh's bitter winter cold at bay, which would need more costly systems. Villagers built around green oases in Ladakh's barren valleys collect sparse poplar wood and animal dung for fuel.
Most power in the Buddhist-dominated region comes from hydroelectric plants or diesel generators, but the bustling capital, Leh, is regularly plunged into darkness because of lack of supply. Businesses such as guesthouses stock up on candles.
Blackouts are unlikely to stop with just one new 45-megawatt hydroelectric plant starting construction this year, and not due onstream for five years. And running generators is getting expensive with diesel costing twice as much as two years ago after oil rose to more than $70 a barrel.
Such blackouts are seen as an obstacle to development in India, aiming for double digit growth and competing for oil assets around the "