New Delhi: In pursuance to the challenge and inspiration given by the Prime Minister in his address to the officials of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas (MoPNG) on September 25, 2017 to develop a viable solar solution to power our kitchens, Indian Oil and Ministry of Petroleum & Natural gas have developed an indigenous Solar cooktop "Surya Nutan."

Surya Nutan was demonstrated on Wednesday at the residence of Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas Hardeep Puri, in the presence of Union Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj Giriraj Singh, Minister of State for Commerce & Industry Som Prakash, Minister of State for Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) Kaushal Kishore, Minister of Finance and Parliamentary Affairs of Uttar Pradesh Suresh Khanna, Indian Oil's Chairman Shrikant Madhav Vaidya and Indian Oil's Director (R&D) Dr SSV Ramakumar, senior officials and prominent members of the media fraternity.

Food cooked on Surya Nutan solar cooktop was served to the guests.

Salient features of Surya Nutan solar cooktop

• Surya Nutan is a Stationary, rechargeable, and always kitchen-connected indoor solar cooking. This is a patented product designed and developed by Indian Oil's R&D Centre, Faridabad.
• It offers an online cooking mode while charging through the Sun which maximizes the system efficiency and ensures high utilization of energy from the Sun.
• It works on a Hybrid Mode (i.e. can work on both solar & auxiliary energy source simultaneously) which makes the Surya Nutan a reliable cooking solution for all weather conditions.
• Insulation design of Surya Nutan minimizes radiative and conductive heat losses.
• Surya Nutan is available in three different models: The premium model (Breakfast +Lunch+Dinner) of Surya Nutan can cook all the meals for family of four.
• Initially, cost of the product is around Rs 12,000 for base model, and Rs 23,000 for Top Model. However, the cost is expected to reduce substantially with economies of scale. At a price of Rs. 12,000-14,000/- for Top Model, assuming annual consumption of 6-8 LPG cylinders, this product can pay back the buyer in first 1-2 years itself.
• Surya Nutan can be used in all weather and seasons including when the Sun is not available for long durations or for continuous days, such as monsoons and extreme winters.
• All the safety aspects required in any indoor appliances are inbuilt in Surya Nutan.
• Surya Nutan is a low maintenance system and the product has a long life.
• Surya Nutan is a modular system and can be designed in different sizes as per the requirement.

With the above features, "Atmanirbhar hote Bharat ki Nayi Udaan Surya Nutan banega Kitchen ki Nayi Pehchan" Surya Nutan has the potential to transform our energy security situation, as India currently imports 50% of its LPG requirements. It also reduces India's CO2 emissions drastically and keeps our citizens insulated from the vagaries of the high international fossil fuel prices.

'Surya Nutan' follows series of other steps being taken by the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas in the current global energy crisis, including increasing ethanol blending to 20 percent, increasing the procurement price of Compressed Bio-Gas (CBG) under the SATAT Scheme from Rs 45/kg to Rs 54/kg, drastically increasing the area under exploration and production to 15 percent of geographical area from current 7-8 percent and aggressively pursuing Green Hydrogen Mission in refineries.

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