World’s first Solar Energy online community just launched

June 27, 2012 - PRLog -- It’s more than a Facebook page or a LinkedIn group for solar energy. It’s the Online Community for Solar energy professionals and enthusiast: www.SOLARIKA.org. SolarIKA stand for Solar Information, Knowledge and Action and it is launched with a mission to provide easily accessible un-biased information and knowledge necessary to advance the adoption of solar energy throughout the world.

For the past few years, Solar Energy has seen many ups and downs. It has been the fastest growing renewable energy and more people are adopting the benefits it provides. The first solar powered boat (Planet Solar) travelled around the world and the first solar powered day and night flight (Solar Impulse) also took place successfully this year. In May, Germany produced 25% of its nation’s electricity by solar power. Although these are major wins for Solar Energy, there is still a case for massive action in terms of research for better efficiencies, better financial models, better policies and better integration of systems and supply chains. This is the case for having a closely-knit community site for Solar Energy practitioners, researches, investors and enthusiasts. SOLARIKA’s user-generated content style and resources provide a wealth of useful information while at the same time facilitates meaningful discussions and networking opportunities amongst its members.

SOLARIKA’s idea is to provide information and knowledge in the field of solar energy via a convenient to use online platform that interests experts and novices, investors and entrepreneurs, suppliers and users, jobseekers and employers and in general any followers of Solar Energy. Apart from providing the latest market news, trends and updates, SOLARIKA provides insights from experts and ensures that its members have access to the latest known conferences, seminars and scholarly articles on solar energy.

It is a platform to share views and facilitate meaningful discussions and provide an opportunity for match-making potential business opportunities in the field of solar energy globally. Most of the content here is generated by its members, who are researchers, analysts, practitioners and thought-leaders in the field of Solar energy.    

The SOLARIKA journey began as a casual discussion between its founder, Mr Nilesh Jadhav and the folks at Sambaash, who met through common friends. Sambaash has enabled similar online community platform in the field of IT, fashion, medicine, etc. and we pounced upon the idea of having a similar platform for Solar Energy. Weeks after this discussion, the whole framework was conceptualised and enthusiastically developed to form the dynamic SOLARIKA online community.

SOLARIKA is founded by Mr Nilesh Y. Jadhav, a solar energy enthusiast, investor and practitioner. Nilesh currently works as a senior scientist at the Energy Research Institute @ NTU, Singapore. He is himself an entrepreneur, mentors start-up companies, explores technology commercialization opportunities and provides consultancy for several solar energy ventures. He also has been covering the solar industry for the past few years as an editor and contributor for various publications.