Sun and India

Solar MissionSolution for India’s energy crisis

Betting on sun“I’d put my money on sun and solar energy. What a source of power !” -Thomas Edison(1847-1931)

Powerless India

Recently, In the world’s largest blackouts, some 600 million Indians lost power. Though India receives solar energy equivalent to nearly 5,000 trillion kwh/year – far more than the country’s total energy consumption, Our country is clearly is struggling to provide enough electricity to its 1.2 billion citizens.

How is our India powered ? India has a total installed capacity of 150,323.4MW

(86.5% government and 13.5% private)Power generated from Coal is a total of 78458 MW

around 53.3% of India's total installed capacity.Nuclear power contributes around 2.9 %( 4120 MW)

of the total installed power.Hydro power is the next biggest source with

contributions of 24.7%.

Renewable energy contributes around 7.7% of the total installed capacity, which includes Solar and wind energy and other various form.

Source MW %

Coal 78458.88 53.3

Gas 16385.61 10.5

Oil 1199.75 0.9

Hydro 36916.76 24.7

Nuclear 4120 2.9

Renewable Energy 13242.41 7.7

Total 150323.4 100

Solution ? Thinking nuclear power would solve all

our power worries would be a colossal  mistake. Because it will make India dependent on foreign countries for Uranium.

Around 150 dams planned for the state of Arunachal Pradesh Together, these dams might fill India's energy gap. But they will also devastate dozens of indigenous tribal peoples, wipe out thousands of acres of breathtaking forest and destroy some of the world's best whitewater.

Solar Energy With about 300 clear, sunny days in a year, India's theoretical Solar power reception, on only its land area, is about 5000 Petawatt-hours per year.

1 Petawatt =1000000000000000 watts

Solar power is by far the Earth's most

available energy source, easily capable

of providing many times the total current

energy demand. Two main commercial ways of

conversion of sunlight into electricity.

i. Concentrating Solar Thermal

Plant (CSP)

ii. Photovoltaic Plants (PV)

Concentrating Solar Plant

Concentrated solar power systems use the sun as the “thermal heat” source .Solar heat is used to create steam which then spins the turbine which drives a generator to produce electricity. On the basis of the method used for extraction of heat energy CSP can be further divided into 1.Parabolic trough 2.Solar tower system.

Parabolic Trough Trough systems collect the sun's energy

using long rectangular, parabolic mirror collectors The mirrors mechanically rotate and follow the sun east to west, focusing sunlight on receiver tubes that run the length of the mirrors. The receiver tubes are positioned along the focal line of each parabolic mirror. The reflected condensed sunlight is very intense and heats a fluid flowing through the tubes to a very high temperature (about 550 C)

The very hot fluid is then used to heat water to create steam for a conventional steam turbine generator to produce electricity.

Parabolic mirror collector

The receiver tube is a stainless steel tube with a special sunlight absorbing surface and is mounted inside an anti-reflective outer glass tube with a vacuum separating the two tubes.

A molten salt compound is used as the transfer fluid. The molten salt is a mixture of 60 % sodium nitrate and 40 % potassium nitrate, commonly called saltpeter.

Solar tower system

Tower systems have three main components: ground heliostats, a tower, and a central receiver at the top of the tower.

The function of the heliostats is to capture solar radiation from the sun and re-direct it to the central receiver.

A heliostat rotates in two dimensions, east and west, and north and south, tracking the sun as it moves throughout the day and throughout the year.

The centralized receiver is located in the upper section of the tower.

The receiver absorbs the sunlight from the heliostats and transfers the energy to a circulating fluid, usually molten salt. 

Molten fluid is used for the generation of steam.This steam then drives a conventional turbine at the bottom of the tower and hence electricity is generated

Photo voltaic plant

Photovoltaics are best known as a method for generating electric power by using solar cells to convert energy from the sun into a flow of electrons. The Photovoltaic effect  refers to photons of light exciting electrons into a higher state of energy, allowing them to act as charge carriers for an electric current.

Feasible site for CSP Plant.

Feasible site for PV Plant.

It is a major initiative of the Government of India and State Governments to promote ecologically sustainable growth while addressing India’s energy security challenge.

It will also constitute a major contribution by India to the global effort to meet the challenges of climate change.

CONCLUSION Our aim is to make solar energy not only

economically viable but economically profitable and this Solar mission is the first step toward that goal.

With India having an average of 300 days of sunshine the Solar potential of India is widely untapped. We need to educate and spread awareness about the huge economic and environmental benefits of the widely untapped source of never ending renewable energy source.

Thank you