Map to tap solar energy to be ready by next year

Chennai:

India will set up additional 6o Automatic Solar Radiation Monitoring Stations (ASRMS) in the eastern part of the country to help prepare a solar map of the nation within next year, according to Dr S Gomathinayagam, executive director of Centre for Wind Energy Technology (CWET).

Addressing a press conference along with Narasimhan Santhanam, marketing coordinator for Renergy 2013, here on Thursday, Gomathinayagam said that they have now established 51 Automatic Solar Radiation Monitoring Stations (ASRMS), which cover potential areas in the country and transmit data via GPRS to the Central Receiving Station in Chennai established at CWET.

He said the map will identify solar top spots at which the sun’s radiation shows optimum intensity for power and heat generation, enabling developers to accurately pinpoint future solar project sites.

The data gathered by the monitoring stations will be used to calculate the Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI), the Direct Normal Incidence (DNI) and the Diffuse Horizontal Irradiance (DHI). Physical plausibility tests for secondary meteorological parameters (non-radiation values), such as air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, barometric pressure, etc. will be updated monthly at each station.

As a result, project developers will be able to predict the plant’s output with reasonable accuracy. They can also make more informed choices about which solar technology - photovoltaics, solar thermal power or solar thermal heat - to use.