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A review on various aspects of institutional solar cooking is presented. Starting with an overview of energy requirement for cooking, the review includes cooking technologies developed for institutional solar cooking, polices and programs for their promotion and case studies reported in the literature on field level application. State of the art concentrating solar technologies suitable for institutional level cooking includes Parabolic dish, Scheffler dish and ARUN ® dish. Design, construction and operational details of both direct and indirect types of concentrating solar cookers have been discussed. The case studies, mainly from India, included provide useful feedback on the experiences of using large scale institutional solar cooking systems. A Few installations of each type of solar cooker have been reviewed and major findings and observations on various aspects of the same are reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For a planner of decentralized renewable energy systems with micro-grids, an accurate load prediction is imperative for proper sizing of the system. For an accurate load projection, the following questions need to be answered: How many households actually get connected to the micro-grid? How much electricity do they actually use? What factors affect their consumption level? How does their consumption level change over time? In this study, an attempt has been made to identify answers to these questions by looking into one of the PV micro-grid rural electrification projects in Sundarban area of West Bengal, India. It is found that the number of beneficiary households has been on increasing trends indicating existence of large potential demands. The monthly electricity consumption of the average household is turned out to be within the range of 0.42–0.66 kW h/day thus not showing any trend of increase over time. In order to identify factors that affect consumption level, a regression model has been developed with two explanatory variables, namely, the total number of connections and the average ambient temperature during supply hours (night). Application of the model would be effective in predicting additional load requirement in case grid extension is planned under the same project to accommodate potential demands. Results of this study would also be applicable to optimization of expansion process of micro-grid systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Development and dissemination of solar energy technologies in India has been aided by a variety of policy and support measures. One of the promotional measures is the provision of financial and fiscal incentives such as capital subsidy, low interest loan and accelerated depreciation related income tax benefits to the users on the purchase of solar energy technologies. In this study an attempt has been made to determine the effective capital cost of solar energy technologies to the user with the provision of financial and/or fiscal incentives. Results of exemplifying calculations for a domestic and an industrial solar water heating system, a solar home lighting system and a solar drying system have been presented and discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

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]

An attempt to estimate the potential of solar industrial process heating (SIPH) and corresponding mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions in dairy industry in India is presented. An assessment of availability of solar radiation as well as of the ambient conditions at various locations with milk processing plants has been made. The effect of the choice of design value of direct normal irradiance on the annual performance of solar process heating systems has been studied using model developed for hourly simulation of the performance of solar process heating system. Further, state wise estimates for useful thermal energy delivery and corresponding solar fraction have also been obtained. The total process heating potential in term of useful energy requirement in dairy sector in India has been estimated at 6.40 PJ/annum which reduces to 4.50 PJ per annum if the process heating requirement is restricted to only pasteurization stage of milk processing. The corresponding solar collector area requirement for process heating in dairy industry in India is estimated in the range of 1.54–1.83 million m 2 with the average solar fraction estimated in the range 0.18–0.32. The use of solar energy for meeting milk processing related thermal energy demand is expected to mitigate (32–144 thousand tonnes) of CO 2 emissions annually. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]