Indian solar radiation data

Analysis, assessment and applications

Prof. M.M. Wagh

Indian solar radiation data analysis

The move is aimed at enabling states and developers of solar power
projects take investment decisions based on scientific rationale.
MNRE have already set up 51 solar monitoring stations for
assessment of solar power in the country, which are going to
expand...60 more such stations shall come, and very soon entire
country would be covered.
The stations have equipment to record all types of data on radiation,
from sun, especially at sites that fall in zones receiving higher direct
solar radiation in a view to generate investment-grade solar radiation
data.
The ministry has assigned the task of solar radiation monitoring to CWET, Chennai, as centralised data collection now being done there.

 MNRE is also looking to give a subsidy push to the rooftop

projects in renewable and is mulling a special scheme for
the purpose.
MNRE is coming out with a separate scheme to give a
push to rooftop and want to open out this sector in such a
manner that people can generate power from their roofs
for themselves and put surplus power directly into the
grid, without it being stored in batteries first
People should be able to generate power at the cost of Rs
8 to 9 per unit and with some subsidy it should come
down to Rs 5 to 6 per unit and get stabilised over next 25
years, .
Rooftop has the potential to change the face of power
generation in India, it is for the power distribution
companies to understand its importance.

 A study undertaken by the ministry with industry experts shows that for
next five years there will be no trouble in putting power directly into grid.
In current Five-Year plan, the target for renewable energy in the country
has been set at 30,000 MW, which require an estimated investment of Rs
2.5 lakh crore.
"Of this 30,000 MW, 15,000 MW is for wind, 10,000 MW for solar, 3,000
MW for hydro and balance for other resources like bio-mass etc.
About India's power scenario, the country has over 2 lakh MW of installed
capacity, besides 30,000 to 40,000 MW capacity of captive generation.
The renewable installed capacity is now 25,000 MW, which is 12 per cent
of installed capacity and 5 per cent of the energy used.
On National Solar Mission,the target of 20,000 MW for the first phase
ending March 2013 will be met and shall exceed both in terms of grid and
off-grid.
In the second phase, the target is to achieve 10,000 MW by 2017. The
Government of India (GoI) will come out with some schemes to procure
around 3,000 MW, while approximately 6,000 MW is expected to come
from various state government schemes.

Solar Radiation Resource

Assessment

Ministry of New and Renewable Energy

(MNRE) has initiated a major project on Solar
Radiation Resource Assessment (SRRA)
across the nation to assess and quantify the
solar radiation availability along with weather
parameters with a view to develop Solar
Atlas. Centre for Wind Energy Technology (CWET), Chennai is implementing the project by
installing a network of 51 Automatic Solar
Radiation Monitoring Stations (ASRMS) in the
first phase in different States using high
quality, high resolution
equipment/instruments.

 Each ASRMS consists of two towers of 1.5 m

and 6 m tall each. The 1.5 m tall tower houses
a Solar Tracker equipped with Pyranometer,
Pyranometer with Shaded Ring and
Pyrheliometer to measure solar parameters,
such as, global, diffused and direct radiation.
The 6 m tall tower houses instruments
measuring rainfall, ambient temperature,
atmospheric pressure, relative humidity, wind
speed and direction. Each ASRMS is totally
powered by 160 Watt SPV Panels and consists
of 13 equipments/instruments and records 37
parameters inclusive of both measured and
derived.

 The data from each ASRMS averaged

to 10 minutes will be transmitted to a
Central Receiving Station established
at C-WET, Chennai through GPRS
mode. The implementation of the
project has started from February
2011 and all stations have already
been installed, completed and
commissioned. The monthly average
(daily) wise data received from each
ASRMS is available on C-WET website
as test run.

Solar Radiation data in India

India is endowed with rich solar energy
resource since it is located in the equatorial
sun belt of the earth. Theoretically Indias solar
power reception is about 5000 trillion
kWh/year with about 300 clear sunny days in a
year. The daily average solar energy incident
over India varies from 4 to 7 kWh/m2with
about 2,3003,200 sunshine hours per year,
depending upon location. This is far more than
current total energy consumption.
The daily average global radiation is around 5
Kwh/m2 in north - eastern and hilly areas to
about 7 Kwh/m2 in Western regions and cold
desert areas.

 The annual global radiation varies from 1600

to 2200 kWh/m2, which is comparable with
radiation received in the tropical and subtropical regions.Although the highest annual
global radiation is received in Rajasthan,
northern Gujarat, Tamilnadu and parts of
Ladakh region, the parts of Andhra Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka
also receive fairly large amount of radiation
as compared to many parts of the world
especially Japan, Europe and the US where
development and deployment of solar
technologies is maximum. Thus it is clear that
solar power projects are commercially viable
in most parts of India.

Solar radiation in Maharashtra

Dhule and Jalgaon from north
Maharashtra, Osmanabad and
Aurangabad from Marathwada and
Chandrapur and Wardha districts of
Vidarbha have the highest exposure
to solar rays.

Solar radiation in Rajasthan

The direct normal insolation over
Rajasthan varies from 1800 Kwh/m2
to 2600Kwh/m2.Mostly the western
part of Rajasthan is blessed with
abundant solar energy. Jodhpur in
Rajasthan is receiving maximum
solar radiation which is known as Sun
City of India. Rajasthan is also
blessed with abundant land, so it
would be ideal for solar PV.

Solar Radiation in Gujarat

Gujarat receives second largest
amount of solar radiation in India.
Gujarat receives 5.5 to 6
Kwh/sq.m/day with 300 sunny
days/year. Most locations in Gujarat
receive an annual Direct Normal
Incidence (DNI) in between 1,800 2,000 Kwh/m2.

Direct normal irradiance at location