Solmap: Project In India's Solar Resource Assessment

Abstract

India launched Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission in 2009, which aims to set up 20 000 MW of grid connected solar power, besides 2 000 MW equivalent of off-grid applications and cumulative growth of solar thermal collector area to 20 million m 2 by 2022. Availability of reliable and accurate solar radiation data is crucial to achieve the targets. As a result of this initiative, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) of Government of India (GoI) has awarded a project to Centre for Wind Energy Technology (C-WET), Chennai in the year 2011 to set up 51 Solar Radiation Resource Assessment (SRRA) stations using the state-of-the-art equipment in various parts of the country, especially the sites with high potential for solar power. The GoI project has synergy with SolMap project, which is implemented by the Deutsche GesellschaftfürInternationaleZusammenarbeit (GIZ) in cooperation with the MNRE. SolMap project is contributing to SRRA project in establishing quality checks on the data obtained as per International protocols and helping data processing to generate investment grade data. The paper highlights the details of SRRA stations and an attempt has been made to present some of the important results of quality control and data analysis with respect to GHI and DNI. While our analysis of the data over one year finds that intensity and profile of the insolation are not uniform across the geographic regions, the variability in DNI is particularly high. Strong influence of monsoon is also identified. SRRA infrastructure aims to develop investment grade solar radiation resource information to assist project activities under the National Solar Mission of India.

Design and Development of Prototype Cylindrical Parabolic Solar Collector for Water Heating Application

“…Variation in the value of beam radiation was observed due to presence of clouds. Clouds deflect the path of radiations get diffused and concentrating collectors can't collect diffuse radiations (WB Stine et al 2001, Mitra et al 2014. Beam radiation intensity is higher during clear sky condition.…”

Performance Analysis and Fault Diagnosis Method for Concentrator Photovoltaic Modules

“…7 th January 2014 was a clear day with no cloudiness and a peak DNI of around 950 W/m 2 is recorded at around 11AM. January is winter in Bangalore and is a time of year when India has little cloud cover and receives high DNI; in contrast to Spain and South Africa where high DNIs are received in summers [18]. April is pre-monsoon and November is post monsoon.…”

The potential for concentrator photovoltaics: A feasibility study in India

“…Superficially, concentrator photovoltaics (CPV) appears to be a promising technology for India. Relatively high direct normal irradiance (DNI) levels are measured and estimated (4.5‐5 kWh/m 2 /day in Jaipur and 5‐5.5 kWh/m 2 /day in Bangalore, for example), and there exists an opportunity for local module assembly with CPV modules; aside from the cell and optical components, much of the metalwork can be performed locally. While these gains are not yet realised, they represent one path by which the CPV module cost can be addressed .…”