Solar Project
With about 300 clear, sunny days in a year, India’s theoretical Solar energy incidence on its land area alone, is about 5,000 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year (or 5 EWh/yr). The solar energy available in a year exceeds that of all fossil fuel energy reserves in India. The daily average solar power generation capacity over India is 5.0 -5.5 kWh/m2 per day which is equivalent to about 1,500–2,000 peak (rated) capacity operating hours in a year with the available commercially proven technologies.
On 16 May 2011, India’s first 5 MW of installed capacity solar power project was registered under the Clean Development Mechanism. In January 2015, the Indian government significantly expanded its solar plans, targeting US$ 100 billion of investment and 100 GW of solar capacity by 2022.
Several cities and towns in the country are experiencing a substantial growth in their peak electricity demand. Municipal Corporations and the electricity utilities are finding it difficult to cope with this rapid rise in demand and as a result most of the cities/towns are facing severe electricity shortages. Various industries and commercial establishments e.g. Malls, Hotels, Hospitals, Nursing homes etc housing complexes developed by the builders and developers in cities and towns use diesel generators for back-up power even during the day time.
Dependency on diesel generator sets can be replaced with SPV Power. For large Industries Captive use of SPV Power is a viable option with a payback of about 3-5 years. The industrial and commercial units operates on DG during day time can use SPV power to reduce diesel. The payback time varies from 2-4 years.
Two type of solar power plant is being implemented today in India 1. Ground Mount Solar Plant 2. Roof-top Solar Plant. However pilot projects on floating Solar plant or covering the canal using SPV Power plant have also been implemented in India.
In ground mount system Solar Panels are mounted on a structure with a concrete foundation on the ground. Therefore a large amount of land is required for this type of solar plants. Generally barren lands are being used in our Country for such solar plants.
The other popular Solar Power plant is Roof-top system. A roof top SPV system could be with or without grid interaction. In grid interaction system, the DC power generated from SPV panels is converted to AC power using power conditioning unit and is fed to the grid either of HT three phase lines or of 220 V single phase line depending on the system installed at institution/commercial establishment or residential complex. They generate power during the daytime which is utilized fully by powering the captive loads and feeding excess power to the grid as long as grid is available. In cases, where solar power is not sufficient due to cloud cover etc. the captive loads are served by drawing power from the grid.
The grid- interactive rooftop SPV systems thus work on net metering basis wherein the beneficiary pays to the utility on net meter reading basis only. Ideally, grid interactive systems do not require battery backup as the grid acts as the back-up for feeding excess solar power and vice versa.
However, to enhance the performance reliability of the overall systems, a minimum battery-back of few hour of load capacity is strongly recommended where the grid is not available or availability is low. In grid interactive systems, it has , however to be ensured that in case the grid fails, the solar power has to be fully utilized or stopped immediately feeding to the grid (if any in excess) so as to safe-guard any grid person/technician from getting shock (electrocuted) while working on the grid for maintenance etc. This feature is termed as ‘Islanding Protection’. Non-grid interactive systems ideally require a full load capacity battery power back up system. However, with the introduction of advanced load management and power conditioning systems, and safety mechanisms, it is possible to segregate the day-time loads to be served directly by solar power without necessarily going through the battery back-up.
The non-grid interactive system with minimum battery back are viable only at places where normal power is not available during daytime. In case the SPV power is to be used after sunshine hours, it would require full load capacity battery backup which will increase the cost of system.
APPLICATION AREA :
Mini Grid for Villages/Remote places.
Shopping malls .
Captive power/ Grid export.
Rural Banks
Rural Hospitals/Health Centres
Farmhouses and Rural Homes
Electrical Power for schools and institutes
Captive consumptions for industry/office/commercial establishments
Telecom Towers
Petrol Pumps
Electrical Energy need for any machineries
Offshore Electrical power solutions
Rural electrification
RANGE :
Home lighting systems.
Street lighting systems .
Small/Medium Power plants.
Roof top solar power plants
Off grid/standalone solar power plants
Grid connected solar power plants
Solar pumping systems
MW level ground based solar power plants.