The India Climate Observatory

Commentary, action and research on climate and development in India

A district lab for solar in India

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A 5MW grid-connected solar power plant in Jodhpur district, Rajasthan. Photo: MNRE

A 5MW grid-connected solar power plant in Jodhpur district, Rajasthan. Photo: MNRE

In the district of Chitradurga, Karnataka, at the edge of the town of Challakere, stands a project run by the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Science (IISC) which is a test array for concentrated solar power. Rows of shallow parabolic troughs, made of specially coated aluminum, stretch for more than 300 metres. Above them are water pipes set to catch sunlight reflected from the troughs. When the project begins operation in a few weeks, the water in the pipes will be heated to 200 °C. The hot water will go to a heat exchanger attached to a small turbine that will produce 100 kilowatts of electricity.

A part of the Solar Energy Research Institute for India and the United States (SERIIUS), and primarily funded by the state government of Karnataka, this small solar array will be used to test various reflective materials and heat-transfer fluids (including, for instance, molten salt in addition to water) from multiple manufacturers. Dozens of small wireless sensors will collect data and send it via the Internet to a dashboard at IISC, where it can be analysed and catalogued. The objective is to find the combinations of components that best suit conditions in India.

ICP_solar_challakere_mapThe Solar Energy Research Institute for India and the United States (SERIIUS), co-led by the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), USA. The SERIIUS programme is to develop and prepare “emerging and revolutionary solar electricity technologies” which can be used by the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Energy Mission and the American Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative. SERIIUS is planned to accelerate the development of solar electric technologies by lowering the cost per watt of photovoltaics (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP).

The BJP government has pledged to create dozens of ‘ultra mega solar power parks’ of 500 megawatts and above to feed power to the national electricity grid. The government has said that energy policies such as those represented by the Challakere concentrated solar power experiment will reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions by 550 million tons. [This article was first published in the MIT Technology Review and can be found in full here.]

Celsius surprises in 57 cities

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ICP_57_cities_temp_top

The middle of February is when the chill begins to abate. The middle of May is when the monsoon is longed for. In our towns, district headquarters and cities, that climatic journey of 90 days is one of a steady rise in the reading of the temperature gauge, from the low 20s to the mid 30s.

This large panel of 90 days of daily average temperatures shows, in 57 ways, the effects of the rains that almost every district has experienced during the last two months. For each city, the curved line is the long period ‘normal’ for these 90 days, based on daily averages. Also for each city, the second line which swings above and below the ‘normal’ is the one that describes the changes in its daily average from February to May 2015.

[You can download (1.52MB) a full resolution image of the panel here.]

Where this second line crosses to rise above the normal, the intervening space is red, where it dips below is coloured blue. The patches of red or blue are what tell us about the effects of a lingering winter, or rains that have been called ‘unseasonal’ but which we think signal a shift in the monsoon patterns.

Amongst the readings there is to be found some general similarities and also some individual peculiarities. Overall, there are more blue patches than there are red ones, and that describes how most of the cities in this panel have escaped (till this point) the typical heat of April and May. The second noteworthy general finding is that these blue patches occur more frequently in the second half of the 90 days, and so are the result of the rainy spells experienced from March to early May.

Hisar (in Haryana) has remained under the normal temperature line for many more days than above or near it. So have Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh), Pendra (Chhattisgarh), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Nagpur (Maharashtra) and Jharsuguda (Odisha).

On the other hand in peninsular and south India, the below ‘normal’ daily average temperature readings are to be found in the latter half of the time period, coinciding with the frequent wet spells. This we can see in Kakinada, Kurnool and Anantapur (Andhra Pradesh), Bangalore, Gadag and Mangalore (Karnataka), Chennai, Cuddalore and Tiruchirapalli (Tamil Nadu) and Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala). [A zip file with the charts for all 57 cities is available here (1.2MB).]

What pattern will the next 30 days worth of temperature readings follow? In four weeks we will update this bird’s eye view of city temperatures, by which time monsoon 2015 should continue to give us more blues than reds. [Temperature time series plots are courtesy the NOAA Center for Weather and Climate Prediction.]