Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 42 (2015) 902–912 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/rser Assessment of solar thermal power generation potential in India Chandan Sharma, Ashish K. Sharma, Subhash C. Mullick, Tara C. Kandpal n Centre for Energy Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 110016, India article info abstract Article history: Realistic assessment of utilization potential of solar energy for thermal power generation and identification of Received 12 July 2014 niche areas/locations for this purpose is critically important for designing and implementing appropriate Received in revised form policies and promotional measures. This paper presents the results of a detailed analysis undertaken for 9 September 2014 estimating the potential of solar thermal power generation in India. A comprehensive framework is developed Accepted 20 October 2014 that takes into account (i) the availability of wastelands (ii) Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) (iii) wastelands that are habitat to endangered species and/or tribal population and/or that is prone to earthquakes and (iv) Keywords: suitability of wasteland for wind power generation. Finally, using an approach developed for the allocation of Solar thermal power generation wastelands suitable for solar power generation between thermal and photovoltaic routes, the potential of solar Concentrated Solar Power thermal power generation is assessed for two threshold values of DNI – 1800 kW h/m2 and 2000 kW h/m2. Potential Estimation for India With all the wastelands having wind speeds of 4 m/s or more allocated for wind power generation, the estimated potential for solar thermal power generation is 756 GW for a threshold DNI value of 1800 kW h/m2 and 229 GW for a threshold DNI value of 2000 kW h/m2. Results obtained can be used for identification of best suited areas for solar thermal power generation in India. & 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Contents 1. Introduction . 903 2. Review of CSP system requirements as reported in literature. 903 2.1. Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) . 903 2.2. Land requirement . 904 2.3. Water requirement . 904 2.4. Availability of transmission and supporting infrastructure . 905 2.5. Potential for auxiliary supply . 905 3. Methodology . 905 3.1. Identification of wastelands in the country . 905 3.1.1. Description of wastelands considered suitable for solar power generation . 905 3.2. Estimation of DNI and other climatic parameters for locations with wastelands. 905 3.3. Identifying wastelands with acceptable annual value of DNI . 905 3.4. Accounting for the need to safeguard endangered species, wellbeing of tribal population etc. 905 3.5. Accounting for potential of wind and PV power generation . 906 4. Results and discussion. 906 4.1. Availability of wasteland (for a particular threshold value of DNI) . 907 4.2. Accounting for wasteland with large tribal population . 907 4.3. Accounting for wasteland with habitat of critically endangered species . 907 4.4. Excluding wasteland under seismic zone . 908 4.5. Exclusion of land with higher slopes . 908 4.6. Accounting for the land suitable for wind and PV power generation. 908 4.7. Ground water availability in potential locations . 909 4.8. Potential for solar thermal power generation . 910 5. Concluding remarks. 910 n Corresponding author. Tel.: þ91 11 26591262. E-mail address: [email protected] (T.C. Kandpal). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2014.10.059 1364-0321/& 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd. C. Sharma et al. / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 42 (2015) 902–912 903 Acknowledgment . 910 AppendixA. ........................................................................................................... 910 AppendixB. ........................................................................................................... 910 AppendixC. ........................................................................................................... 911 References............................................................................................................. 911 1. Introduction Results of a preliminary study towards identification of suitable areas for solar thermal power generation in India and estimation of To meet increasing global energy demand in an environmentally corresponding potential have been presented in this paper. Besides sustainable manner, greater emphasis is being given to the develop- the primary considerations of land and solar resource availability, an ment and dissemination of renewable energy technologies. Solar attempt has also been made to consider (i) the availability restric- energy is an important renewable energy source that is expected to tions caused by the habitat of endangered species and tribal popula- play a significant role in the future energy supply mix [1–4]. tion on the identified wastelands, (ii) wastelands under seismic Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) technology is an important option zones, and (iii) the potential suitability of the same wasteland for for harnessing solar energy that has been receiving increasing atten- wind power generation. Finally the wastelands that can be allocated tion during past several decades [5–8]. Many CSP plants are opera- for solar power generation have been allocated between solar tional across the world and new plants are coming up. Currently four thermal power generation and photovoltaic generation on the basis candidate CSP technologies appear to have achieved reasonable level of the number of hours during the year the ambient temperature of of technological maturity [9,10]. These are parabolic trough, power the location exceeds a pre-defined value. tower, linear Fresnal reflector and parabolic dish. With the launch of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) by the Govern- ment of India in January 2010, activities towards establishing CSP based solar thermal power generation in the country gathered 2. Review of CSP system requirements as reported in literature considerable momentum [11]. The mission aims to create an enabling policy framework for the deployment of 20,000 MW of solar power by 2.1. Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) the year 2022 [12]. Such an initiative necessitates identification of areas suitable for CSP based solar electricity generation and also Unlike Solar photovoltaic systems that make use of direct as estimation of its overall potential. A detailed potential estimation for well as diffuse components of solar radiation, CSP systems can the whole country and identification of niche area shall be of great utilize only direct component with the need for high Direct fi help for the policy makers, researchers and project developers. Normal Irradiance for ef cient functioning. The locations having Efforts have been made towards assessing the potential of CSP high annual DNI availability are best suited for CSP installation. in some countries of the world. Trieb et al. [13] have estimated the Threshold values of annual DNI for solar thermal power generation potential of CSP on a global scale. They identified Africa, Australia, as suggested by some researchers are presented in Table 1.Asan China, South America, India and Middle East countries as potential areas for CSP installations. Breyer and Knies [14] commented that Table 1 CSP has immense potential to become a major source of global Threshold values of annual DNI suggested by some researchers. electricity supply and less than 3% of global CSP based energy Researcher (s) Threshold value of annual Reference supply potential can cater to the global electricity demand. Bravo DNI (kW h/m2/year) et al. [15] estimated the potential of renewable energy technolo- gies (including CSP) for Spain. Similarly potential assessment for Dawson and Schlyter, 2012 1800 [38] the state of Arizona in USA was carried out by Pletka et al. [16].In Breyer and Knies, 2009 2000 [14] Purohit and Purohit, 2010 1800 [32] the United States, potential assessment for other areas was under- Ummadisingu and Soni, 2011 2000 [9] taken by Dahle et al. [17], Karstaedt et al. [18], and Kirby et al. [19]. Similar attempts to estimate the potential of CSP in North Africa, South Africa, Serbia, Australia, Algeria, Brazil, Canada, China and Turkey have also been reported in the literature [20–30]. In context of India, while several researchers have made qualita- Table 2 tive statements regarding the potential of CSP [31–35], a recent study Reported land requirement for different CSP technologies. [36] has presented quantitative estimates of CSP based power Technology Land requirement Remark Reference generation potential for northwestern India (the states of Rajasthan (m2/MW) and Gujarat). Though this study takes into account the availability of wastelands and solar resource, it does not consider the possibility of Parabolic trough 40,000 Including power block [39] 40,000 [32] wind power generation at some of the locations suitable for solar 25,505 Including power block [40] thermal power. Also distribution of wastelands between photovoltaic 20,000 [38] (PV) power and solar thermal power has not been considered in the 18,000 [41] study. Another recent study [37] presents district wise potential of Power tower 83,600 [39] CSP and solar PV in India using remotely sensed annual average GHI 50,000 1 h storage [41] 45,000 [41] and DNI values in Geographical Interface System (GIS) environment. Linear Fresnal 19,166 1 h storage [41] While this study considers all the categories