Solar drying and CO2 emissions mitigation: potential for selected cash crops in India Atul Kumar, Tara C. Kandpal * Centre for Energy Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016, India Received 8 September 2003; received in revised form 17 September 2004; accepted 1 October 2004 Communicated by: Associate Editor S.C. Bhattacharya Abstract An attempt to estimate the potential of solar crop drying for some selected cash crops in India has been made. The amount of cash crops that can be dried by solar dryers and the required aperture area of solar dryers have been esti- mated. Estimates for unit cost of solar drying for different crops have also been worked out. The potential of net fossil CO2 emissions mitigation due to the amounts of different fuels that would be saved by solar drying has been estimated along with the unit cost of CO2 emissions mitigation. Keywords: Solar crop drying; Cash crops; Potential estimation; CO 2 emissions 1. Introduction Solar drying is a potential decentralized thermal application of solar energy particularly in developing countries (Ekcchukwu and Norton, 1999; Garg and Prakash, 2000; Sodha et al., 1987). However, so far, there has been very little field penetration of solar drying tech- nology. In the initial phase of dissemination, identifica- tion of suitable niche areas for using solar dryers would be extremely helpful towards their market penetration. In this context, one of the possible areas of immediate intervention in developing countries appears to be the so- lar drying of cash crops such as tobacco, tea, coffee, grapes raisin, small cardamom, chilli, coriander seeds, ginger, turmeric, black pepper, onion flakes, and garlic flakes etc. For such crops, even with the capital intensive nature of solar dryers, the unit cost of solar drying is ex- pected to be a small fraction of the selling price of the dried product. In this paper, an attempt has made to- wards potential assessment of solar drying of some cash crops in India. The resulting net mitigation of CO 2 emis- sions due to realization of the estimated potential of solar drying of the selected cash crops has also been estimated. 2. Methodology 2.1. Estimation of potential amounts of cash crops The initial estimate for the potential amount (Qdry) °f a cash crop for solar drying can essentially begin with the gross annual production (Q to t) of the crop in the country. However, in areas with inadequate solar