Solar thermal in India: a detail analysis of central receiver system
Student name: Mr Karan Kapoor
Guide: Dr V V N Kishore
Year of completion: 2010
Host Organisation: Forum for the Advancement of Solar Thermal
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Mr Anil K Lakhina
Abstract: India possesses an immense potential in solar power. It is densely populated and has
high solar insolation, which gives an ideal combination for establishment of solar thermal
power in India. The daily average solar energy incident over India varies from 4-7 kWh per
sq. m. with about 3200 clear sunshine hours per year. However inspite of boasting such a
great place for investing in solar power, the country hasn’t seen much investment in this
sector. This mainly due to high cost involved in generation of electricity from solar thermal.
Of all the technologies being developed for Solar Thermal Power Generation, Central
Receiver Systems (CRS) are able to work at the highest temperatures and to achieve higher
efficiencies in electricity production. The combination of this concept and the choice of
molten salts as the heat transfer fluid, both in the receiver and for heat storage, enables solar
collection to be decoupled from electricity generation better than water/steam systems,
yielding high capacity factors with solar-only or low hybridisation ratios. These advantages,
along with the benefits of Spanish legislation on solar energy, were the reasons that the
SENER company decided to promote the 17-MWe Solar TRES plant. It will be the first
commercial CRS plant with molten-salt storage, and will help consolidate this technology for
future higher-capacity plants.
This paper describes the basic concept developed in this demonstration and
commercial projects, reviewing the experience accumulated in the previous Solar TWO,
Solar ONE and PS10 projects, and present design innovations in heliostat.
Keywords: Solar power plant, CRS, Central tower, Molten salt, Heliostat, Solar TRES, DNI
