India’s Concentrated Solar Power (CSP)

India has only 52.5 MW of Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) in operation, however there are seven projects of 470 MW aggregate capacity scheduled to be completed under the first phase of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar

India has only 52.5 MW of Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) in operation, however there are seven solar thermal projects of 470 MW aggregate capacity scheduled to be completed under the first phase of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission.

India has only 52.5 MW of Concentrating Solar Thermal Power (CSP) in operation, however there are seven projects of 470 MW aggregate capacity scheduled to be completed under the first phase of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission.

The deadline for commissioning has been extended for then months (until March 2014) due to delays in equipment supply suffered by most of these Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) projects.

India’s rapid economic growth will increase significantly the electricity demand during the next decades, therefore India needs to make massive investments in order to expand its current installed capacity and to improve the stability of its electric grid.

To reduce its dependence on imported coal (coal-fired plants account for 57% of India’s installed capacity) India is making favorable progress in introducing renewable energy power facilities. Regarding the implementation of Concentrating Solar Thermal Power (CSP) technologies, India has sufficient land area with suitable direct normal irradiation levels to make CSP emerge as a significant contributor to India’s energy mix.

In July 2010 India introduced a levy of Rs 50 per tonne (≈ US$ 1 per tonne) of coal both domestically produced and imported. This tax will help to finance a National Clean Energy Fund.

India’s first 2.5 MW CSP plant was commissioned in April 2011 at Bikaner, Rajasthan. The plant, developed by ACME Group, employs eSolar power tower technology and is expected to be scaled up to 10 MW.

The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission was launched on the 11^th January, 2010 by the Prime Minister setting an ambitious goal of deploying 20 GW of solar capacity by 2022. The Mission was divided into three phases: the first one up to 2013, second phase from 2013 to 2017 and the third phase from 2017 to 2022. In the first phase, seven Concentrating Solar Thermal Power (CSP) proposals were selected totaling 470 MW with bids between Rs 10.49/kWh and Rs 12.24/kWh. Currently these projects are under construction and are planned to start operation before May 2013. The deadline for commissioning has been extended for then months (until March 2014) due to delays in equipment supply suffered by most of these projects.

Recently, India’s Karnataka state has launched a Request for Proposal to develop up to 130 MW of solar power projects in the Indian state. For the bidding process the bidders must apply a discount to the tariff, which for CSP has been set to Rs 11.35/kWh (US$ 0.21/kWh).

Concentrating solar power (CSP) projects in India are listed below—alphabetical by project name. You can browse a project profile by clicking on the project name.