Ex-IITian Sushil Breaks a Guinness Record Riding 7424 km on a Solar Bicycle to Promote Solar Energy in India
The Vision of Indian PM Narendra Modi for use of renewable energy sources, especially solar energy, will need around 300,000 skilled solar professionals comprising of multiple skill sets ranging from research, design, engineering, installation, operation and maintenance, sales, and marketing.
Hence, there is an urgent need to educate and empower people, making them aware of the opportunities available in the upcoming solar energy sector.
Concerned over global climate change, environment-conscious Sushil Reddy, after graduating from IIT Bombay in 2013 left his job and started transforming his education gained in IIT into practical use.
Images source: TheBetterIndia
Sushil along with three friends entered into the Guinness World Records, all for a good cause.
Image source: HT
He traveled the longest journey on a solar-powered motorized bicycle – 7,423.88 km (4,612.98 mi) around India in 79 days during May-July 2016. It was started and ended in Mumbai and the bicycle was provided by Hulikkal Electro India Pvt. Ltd.
Images source: Pioneer News
Sushil has earned the integrated master’s degree in solar energy science and engineering started designing a solar-powered electric bicycle and planned to tide nine states with it to spread awareness on solar energy.
Accompanied by three friends- Rajinder Bhaskar, Krunal Tailor, and Himanshu Singh- they started from IIT on May 8 and traveled through various parts of India.
Images source: Pioneer News
Throughout the route, Reddy conducted numerous discussions and presentations in schools and colleges to educate students on the benefits and applications of solar energy. He also encouraged employing different ways of using solar energy.
Even any person, on-road or anywhere, he interacted and explained to them about the concept of solar bicycle and its benefits.
“Earlier I had designed a bicycle with solar panel fitted on as roof and traveled from Mumbai to Goa in December 2015, but it had some technical limitations so I changed the design again,” said Sushil about past exploration.
A new design of the bicycle has combined electric-cum-manual operations; it is powered by a 250-watt electric motor fitted in the rear axle and a lithium-ion battery that generates about 300 horsepower, reports Hindustan Times.
The battery takes two hours to charge completely from the solar panel, which is resting on a small trolley, hooked to the cycle.
IntersolarIndia, a leading trade fair for solar energy, becomes the title sponsor for the solar bicycle project ‘Sun Pedal Ride’ initiated by IIT Bombay alumnus.
Hockey Village India, an NGO which promotes sports and education in rural sectors actively became part of the initiative. (Source: Pioneer News)