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A framework to estimate the extent of various incentives required to ensure financial attractiveness of institutional solar cooking is presented with typical examples from India. Incentives considered are capital subsidy/viability gap funding, accelerated depreciation, interest subsidy, and investment tax credit have been considered for three commercially available designs of solar cookers that can be used for institutional cooking (SK-23, Scheffler dish (direct), and Scheffler dish (steam)). Depending on the location, the extent of viability gap funding (VGF) for Scheffler dish (steam) solar cooking system varies from 18.7% to 66.5% of the capital cost, while the same for SK-23 and Scheffler dish (direct) varies from 8.7% to 82.9%, and 33.4%–94.5% respectively. From the government point of view, the provision of accelerated depreciation for incentivising institutional solar cooking is found to be the least cost option followed by viability gap funding, investment tax credit and interest subsidy in the order of increasing cost to the government. At locations in the cold and cloudy climatic zone of India, there is invariably a need to provide a combination of incentives (as the current provision of 30% capital subsidy is not adequate) to ensure a breakeven condition. • Steam-based solar cooking financially more attractive than direct cooking. • Higher levels of incentives needed for direct solar cookers in India. • Accelerated depreciation costs the least to the government as an incentive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we estimate the cost reduction potential of parabolic trough based concentrated solar Power systems in India and consequently their implications for levelized cost of electricity. Using the past as well as envisaged global cumulative diffusion of CSP systems and the learning rates reported in the literature, the expected capital cost of parabolic trough based CSP systems in India has been estimated. Present capital cost of parabolic trough based CSP plant in India has been taken as US $2540/kW. Local manufacturing of CSP components and consequently reduced logistics is expected to reduce the capital cost by 14% and 8% respectively. A learning rate of 10% for the global cumulative diffusion in the base case scenario is expected to reduce capital cost to 49% of the present cost by the end of 2050. Present LCOE of US $151/MWh of CSP plant in India is expected to reduce to US $76/MWh by the end of 2050. Provision of 6 hour thermal storage is expected to reduce LCOE of CSP plant in India by 18% as compared to LCOE of CSP plant without storage. Analysis for different learning rates (5%, 10% and 15%) for CSP plant and different discount rates (6%, 8% and 10%) has also been undertaken and results obtained are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The choice of condenser cooling option for concentrating solar power (CSP) plants is likely to affect their techno-economic feasibility. In view of this, an attempt has been made to assess relative techno-economics and net life cycle CO 2 -eq emissions mitigation (LCCM) potential for 50 MW nominal capacity wet-cooled and dry-cooled parabolic trough solar collector (PTSC) and dry-cooled solar power tower (SPT) based CSP plants with 6.0 h of thermal energy storage for two potential locations in India. It was observed that though dry cooling is likely to save significant amount of water (∼92%) in PTSC based plants, the same shall result in higher capital cost, higher performance penalty and higher parasitic power requirements leading to around 20% higher levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) as compared to wet-cooled PTSC based plants. It was also observed that the dry-cooled SPT based plants shall be able to deliver up to 4.5% higher annual electricity output and LCOE is also likely to be lowered by 13% than wet-cooled PTSC based plants. Considering emissions embodied and emissions associated with water transport/extraction from the source and water treatment, the estimation of LCCM from the PTSC and SPT based CSP plants have also been undertaken. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An attempt has been made to estimate the unit capital cost of parabolic trough collector (PTC) based concentrating solar power (CSP) plants in India to facilitate their financial appraisal. While reviewing approaches mentioned in the literature, a significant variation is observed in unit capital cost estimates for a 50 MW wet cooled without storage PTC based plant (US $1700 to US $2662 per kW). To internalize the effect of alternate condenser cooling options and thermal energy storage on the unit capital cost, a new approach that is based on inventory of material used and associated costs have been suggested. With the use of this approach, the unit capital cost of a 50 MW wet cooled PTC plant is estimated at US $1734 per kW. Similarly, for the same nominal capacity plant with dry cooling, the unit capital cost is estimated at US $1994 per kW. Moreover, the effects of increased nominal capacity and hours of thermal energy storage on the unit capital cost have also been investigated. • Cost estimates for a 50 MW PTC based CSP plant in India. • Review of potential approaches for estimating capital cost of PTC based CSP plants. • Study of cost implications of condenser cooling options and thermal energy storage. • Effect of the nominal capacity of the plant and hours of storage on the unit cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The capital cost of concentrating solar power (CSP) plants is relatively higher amongst other renewable energy-based electricity generation options. To make CSP plants more competitive, different possibilities to reduce capital costs of CSP plants need to be explored while making use of the recent developments in the field. Two potential modalities for parabolic trough collector based CSP plants have been considered in the study – (i) use of large aperture area parabolic troughs and advanced heat transfer fluids so as to operate at higher temperatures (Case-I) and (ii) use of larger aperture area parabolic troughs along with the use of molten salt as both the heat transfer fluid and storage medium (Case-II). The cost reduction potential has been estimated by assessing the impact of proposed changes on the number of components required to be used and consequent reduction in the material requirements in various components of different subsystems of the CSP plant. The likely reduction in capital cost of the parabolic trough collector based CSP plants for a location in India is estimated at 12.3% for Case-I and 29.9% for Case-II. • A review of recent developments in PTC technology to identify cost reduction possibilities. • Estimation of capital cost using advance collectors and heat transfer fluid. • Cost reduction of up to 29.9% is expected using advanced PTC technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]