Solar water heating systems in India

The Indian Government has been trying to develop and promote the use of solar thermal energy through solar water heating systems for about a decade. Efforts in this direction had been going on on a smaller scale for at least five years before that. Various designs and combinations of materials have been tried out. Solar water heating systems, both domestic and non-domestic (commercial or industrial), are fairly well-established in the marketplace as a viable alternative to the use of non-renewable energy options for water heating. This review traces the evolution of the technology during the last decade and a half.