International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056 Volume: 07 Issue: 10 | Oct 2020 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072 © 2020, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 7.529 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 1378 Status of Concentrated Solar Power in India Ashutosh Shirole 1* *1 Department of Technology, Shivaji University, Maharashtra, India ---------------------------------------------------------------------***---------------------------------------------------------------------- Abstract - Fossil fuel consumption emits harmful gases in the atmosphere. Toxic gases impact the environment negatively. The world is in a dire situation to inhibit the use of fossil fuels by substituting it with clean renewable energy. India's solar energy potential is unparalleled. Solar energy can be harnessed by SPV (Solar photovoltaic) and CSP (Concentrated solar power). However, CSP has many perks over SPV, including higher efficiency and feasibility to dispatch stored energy. This paper aims to investigate the status of CSP in India. Our results indicate that CSP had an unsuccessful run in the last two decades. The barriers which constrained growth of CSP are identified. It is concluded that the lack of auxiliary support structure for successful deployment of CSP is responsible for slower growth. This includes no reliable data, reverse auction policy, no indigenous manufacturing. The assessment of the regime's action to combat these challenges is done. The study concludes that indigenous manufacturing, research, and development activities must be promoted to increase the share of CSP in the country's overall energy security. Key Words: Concentrated solar power, Status, Challenges, Progress of concentrated solar power, Potential of CSP, Barriers to CSP, Solar thermal 1. INTRODUCTION Energy is the backbone of economy. India is one of the leading developing countries. With growing GDP (Gross domestic product), energy consumption is also increasing. India's energy consumption was 32450 PJ (Peta joules) in 2018-19, which means per capita energy consumption increased to 19669 MJ (Mega joules) in 2018-19, showing an increase of 3.67% over 2017-18. Out of this, coal accounted for 48%, natural gas, and crude oil when combined contributed a share of 40%. Renewable energy sources, including hydro, nuclear stood least with 12% portion only [1]. This shows that fossil fuels dominate energy mix. This is leading to the depletion of fossil fuels and heavy reliance on importing the same. Also, use of fossil fuels puts the environment at risk. Global warming, smog, air pollution are all results of burning fossil fuels. It is estimated that global temperature rise above the preindustrial level must be limited below 20C. To combat this, India, along with 190 nations, signed Paris climate accord in 2015. This lead to an increasing interest in harnessing renewable energy [2]. Sun has been the origin of all forms of energy, including fossil fuel. Earth receives about 885 million TWh energy from sun per annum. This is in several multiples of world's energy consumption. Solar energy falling on earth's surface is in the form of solar radiation. Solar radiation travels through space to reach earth’s surface. Due to the atmosphere, 30% of radiations scatter away, and such radiations received on earth called diffused radiations [3]. A major part of radiations travel in a straight line to earth. These are beam radiations. A large number of solar radiations are reflected back to space or clouds called albedo phenomenon. The radiations received on earth are classified into three types as global horizontal irradiance (GHI), direct normal irradiance (DNI), diffused horizontal irradiance (DHI). As mentioned earlier, DNI is a direct portion of solar radiation that strikes the earth's surface at the right angle. DHI represents scattered irradiance. GHI compromises both DNI and DHI. Solar energy is harnessed by either using solar photovoltaic (SPV) cells or solar thermal collectors. SPV cells convert solar energy directly into electricity. Collectors utilize solar rays' heat energy, which can be used as process heat or as an input for thermal power plants. SPV cell industry is currently dominated by silicon and thin-film solar cells. The efficiency of such panels is 17% to 21% [4]. However, SPV technology has shown the highest learning curve among all renewable energy technologies. Third and fourth-generation cells like tandem and perovskite cells have shown 35% - 47% efficiency. Nevertheless, reliability of these cells is questionable; since these cells degrade within 2-3 years [5]. Due to this, first and second-generation cells are the only viable option for SPV industry currently. On the contrary, CSP is a mature technology and an old player in the solar industry. Efficiency of CSP varies from 7% to 21% [6]. The winning point for CSP is to facilitate dispatchable power. During low power demand, energy from CSP can be stored and utilized during peak hours. This improves reliability of technology by reducing intermittency of solar radiation. The ability of CSP to suppress grid shocks in peak hours is strength against SPV [7]. This makes CSP an attractive technology in the investment aspect. The minimum DNI above which CSP plants become operational is 200 W/m2 [8]. The average DNI in India is approximately 4.4 KWh/m2/day. This shows 13780 TWh of energy per day. This translates into 633000 TWh of thermal energy generation annually [9]. This depicts that India has a high potential for the development of CSP. Provided the above facts, CSP can play a vital role in India's mission of sustainable development. Hence the focus of paper lies in assessing the current status of CSP in India. The study also identifies possible challenges in the wide-scale