Moser Baer Photo Voltaic to set up solar power project in Rajasthan

[Ramakrishna Kandula]

Looks good. But 4.5 million $/ MW seems to be very expensive.
Wind or Solar concentrator power generation is much cheaper than PV route on large scale.
What you guys say?

Hope you guys know about google Renewable energy power generation push. With in a decade
they want to beat fossil fuel or coal based power generation prices.

http://www.google.com/corporate/green/energy/index.html

They tied up with eSolar in Pasadena, CA. Find out more at http://www.eSolar.com

Moser Baer Photo Voltaic to set up solar power project in Rajasthan
30 Nov, 2007, 1134 hrs IST, INDIATIMES NEWS NETWORK

MUMBAI: Moser Baer Photo Voltaic, a subsidiary of Moser Baer India, has signed an agreement with the government of Rajasthan for setting up of a large solar power project in the state, with an estimated generation capacity of 1-5 MW. The project will be the largest grid-connected solar farm in India and entail an investment of around $25 million at $4.5 million per MW. Moser Baer is also evaluating various options for setting up large sized solar farms across the SAARC region with strategic tie-ups with some of the leading global solar PV companies and clean energy funds. Moser Baer Photo Voltaic plans to implement a capacity of 500 MW by 2009-10 through a mix of technologies in the crystalline silicon, concentrator and thin film domain. The company's photovoltaic equipment manufacturing capacities for crystalline silicon, concentrator and thin film technologies are coming up in an SEZ in Greater Noida. At 11:27 am, Moser Baer India shares were up 4.01 per cent at Rs 270 on BSE.

[Shireesh Kedare]

Yes it is very costly but is almost at par with today's PV cost . Moser Baer was expected to be cheaper. May be they will be cheaper when they come up with their thin film units in 2-3 years. Solar PV can have plant load factor of 17 to 20%

 

Solar thermal concentrator based power plant (Stirling Route) can be half this cost and can have plant load factor of 28 to 30%.

 

Wind machines will be a third of this cost and have plant load factor of 25 to 28%.

 
Regards,

- Shireesh
______________________________
Dr. Shireesh B. Kedare

Adjunct Associate Professor,
Energy Systems Engineering,
IIT-Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400076, India
Ph. (022) 2576 7835
www.ese.iitb.ac.in/~sbk

Director
Clique Developments Private Limited
134-A/B, Government Industrial Estate
Charkop, Kandivali (West),
Mumbai 400067, India
Ph. (022) 2860 9011
www.clique.in
--------------------------------------
 

[Ramakrishna Kandula]

Hi Shireesh,

 You are right. I contacted Stirling Energy guys last year.
 But they reluctant to give me information, price, orders etc.
 They said, they can give only systems to government agencies
 and very large scale projects only.

 http://www.stirlingenergy.com/default.asp

 The reception was not rude though.
 
 Is the stirling system is patented?
 No one can create similar systems other than them ?

Regards,
Ramakrishna

[Manu Sharma]

Hi Ramakrishna,

Moser Baer has a manufacturing joint venture with SolFocus of U.S. which has developed a concentrating solar PV system. Though I'm not sure whether the Rajasthan plant uses the same technology. I believe the collaboration is to manufacture Solfocus's Gen1 module in India. Their Gen2 technology is more advanced and more cost effective. Both technologies use multi junction cells that have achieved efficiencies as high as 40%. However, Solfocus's solution isn't the most advanced application of multi-junction technology, in my view.

The Google initiative is interesting but there already are renewable energy technologies that offer power generation at the price of coal or less. I know of at least three different companies that have achieved this. All of these are emerging technologies but they well on the way to becoming very large businesses.

Sterling energy systems can't compete with concentrating PV based on multi-junction cells. A sterling engine's efficiency reduces drastically in low sun condition while concentrating PV systems get the most dawn-dusk energy our of a solar resource.

Manu