Badri S Rao

CSTEP research report.

In Central Receiver Systems (CRSs), thousands of heliostats track the sunrays and reflect beam radiation on to a receiver surface. The size of the reflected image and the extent of reflection from the heliostats are one of the important criteria that need to be taken into account while designing a receiver, since spillage losses may vary from 2 to 16% of the total losses. The present study aims to determine the size of an external cylindrical receiver, such that the rays reflected from all the heliostats in the field are intercepted. 

Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plants require Direct Normal Solar Irradiance (DNI) data for both design and operation. The availability of DNI data, especially with closer time intervals, until 2010-12 was scarce. However, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) published a Typical Meteorological Year (TMY) data on Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI) and Diffuse Horizontal Irradiance (DHI). The study developed a methodology to use these GHI and DHI data and arrive at DNI.

Closed Loop Brayton cycle power plants using supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) have drawn the attention of many researchers in recent times. In this power plant (using heat source from either solar or nuclear),one of the main challenges is the design of the prime mover, namely the turbine. Radial Inflow Turbine (RIT) is found to be a suitable candidate as it has many advantages over Axial Flow TurbinesTechnologies used for the design of RIT for air Brayton cycle are well established.

The annual consumption of petroleum products in India was about 221 million metric tons in 2015. Of this, 84% was imported. The Indian industrial sector accounts for about 16%–20% of the total fuel consumption for thermal energy for different heating applications in the temperature range of 50°C–250 °C. Solar collectors can meet these temperature requirements and offer the possibility to mitigate the consumption of oil.

A detailed methodology to design the size of solar field for a parabolic trough plant is not explicitly available in open literature, particularly if thermal storage and hybridization are also considered, as most of the papers present a gross overview.

The cumulative number of households waiting for power supply is close to 4 crore. Majority of electrified villages have huge demand-supply gap and access to power is unreliable or of low quality. In many rural areas, electricity is barely available for economic use and development. Grid-tied renewable powered mini-grids can help improve reliability and augment supply to the central grid effectively.