Project Solar Cooker: The Answer to the 13–27 GW Induction Power Crisis

 

Respected Shri Piyush Goyalji,

Namaskar.

I write to you as a 92-year-old citizen who has been advocating Project Solar

 Cooker since 2017 — and who believes the current LPG crisis has finally made the

 case undeniable.

The Hindu Business Line has just reported that if India's rush to induction cooking

 continues unchecked, the Power Ministry estimates our peak electricity demand

 could surge by 13 to 27 GW — consumed almost entirely during the morning and

 evening cooking hours when the grid is already under maximum stress. This is

 not a solution to the West Asia crisis. It is a second crisis layered upon the first.

I respectfully submit that the Solar Cooker path — which I have outlined in my

 White Paper 

https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2026/03/white-paper-project-solar-cooker.html 

— avoids this trap entirely, for the following reasons:

1. ZERO GRID BURDEN. 

A solar cooker draws no electricity from the grid. Converting 3.3 crore (10%) of

 LPG users to solar cooking adds precisely 0 GW to peak demand — versus the

 13–27 GW that induction heaters would add. At a time when our grid is already

 stretched, this distinction is critical.

2. FASTER FOREX SAVINGS. 

Each solar cooker replaces approximately 7 LPG cylinders per year. Converting 3.3

 crore households saves ~231 million cylinders annually — a forex saving of

 approximately $2.7 billion (₹23,000 Crore) per year. The total system saving,

 including subsidy and logistics, reaches ₹37,000 Crore annually.

3. RAPID PAYBACK. 

A one-time subsidy investment of ₹29,700 Crore (₹9,000 per unit, 50% of cost)

 recoups itself in under 10 months when the full LPG ecosystem cost is accounted

 for. No other energy programme in India's history offers this return on

 investment.

4. NO NEW INFRASTRUCTURE NEEDED. 

Induction cooking requires new cookware, grid upgrades, and additional power

 generation capacity — all of which take years and thousands of crores to build.

 Solar cookers need neither. They are self-contained, decentralised, and grid-

independent.

5. GEOPOLITICAL IMMUNITY. 

Solar energy is produced locally, every day, by the sun — not by tankers

 navigating the Strait of Hormuz. It is the only cooking fuel that is truly immune to

 West Asia geopolitics.

6. PLI-READY MANUFACTURING. 

I have specifically proposed invoking the PLI scheme for Thermal Batteries and

 Solar Hybrid Induction plates — bringing the same industrial momentum your

 Ministry is now considering for induction heaters, but directed toward a

 technology that does not add to the power crisis.

Respected Goyalji, 

you chaired the high-level meeting on 3rd April to address the induction heater

 supply chain. I urge you to broaden that mandate by placing Solar Cookers

 alongside induction heaters as an equally strategic response — one that saves

 forex, saves grid capacity, and saves the government's own subsidy burden,

 simultaneously.

I have been writing to Cabinet Ministers on this subject since 2017. 

The crisis has now arrived. The window to act on a war footing is open. I humbly

 request 15 minutes of your time, or a direction to a senior official, to discuss how

 Project Solar Cooker can be escalated to national mission scale.

With deep regards and faith in your vision,

Hemen Parekh

www.YourContentCreator.in / www.HemenParekh.ai / 11 April 2026

Mumbai

=============================================

Full White Paper:

https://myblogepage.blogspot.com/2026/03/white-paper-project-solar-cooker.html

Past correspondence (2017–2026): http://myblogepage.blogspot.com