The objective of the project is to develop a low cost concentrating collector for production of medium temperature heat, designed for Indian climate, cost and production conditions. This will be a technology solution for affordable solar energy in distributed power generation which is necessary in India, and as fuel saver in feed water preheating applications of large thermal power plants mainly operated by coal.

The development of such a collector is considered as an innovative solution in the field of low cost renewable energy production. It is also environmentally friendly technology as carbon dioxide emissions will be avoided by these installations. The cooperative nature of the project combines technological know-how on the Indian and German sides on specific issues, thus aiming at a unique adapted technology solution for the Indian market.

The project seeks to develop industrial scale Linear Fresnel Reflector (ILFR) designed with high accuracy for meeting the temperature requirements between 250 – 300oC. Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector System (CLFR) comprises of a series of long, narrow, shallow-curvature (almost flat) mirrors that focus light onto a linear receiver positioned above the mirrors. A small reflector can be attached on top of the receiver to further focus the incoming solar radiation. CLFR system promises lower overall costs due to ground level laid reflectors, while still using the simple line-focus geometry with one axis for tracking. Two major applications of this range in temperature is for (a) High end industrial heating applications (60% of the industrial heating is 150 – 220oC while 25% process heating require 220 – 300oC) and, (b) For providing heat into the coal based thermal power plant cycle which ultimately converts this solar energy into electricity through an indirect regenerative cycle integration. Both these applications are very critical in terms of saving of fossil fuel, CO2 reduction and the most optimum way of integrating renewable energy into the existing fossil systems.

Specifically this project envisages setting up of a 250kWth CLFR facility and integrating the same with an existing thermal power unit. The demonstration project is being setup alongside the thermal power unit at the Heavy Water Plant (Department of Atomic Energy, Govt. of India) at Manuguru, Andhra Pradesh, India.