Blog, Events, Solar thermal, White Paper

Footprints – Edition 6

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Solar Rooftop – Myths vs Reality was the theme for this edition of Footprints conducted on 29 June 2018 at WelcomHotel in Chennai. Sticking to Footprints\’ legacy of being a platform for sharing end-user experiences, this edition also featured participants and speakers from various sectors of the industry, with each organisation bringing in something to the table with regard to energy utilisation. The opening remarks were given by Mr. Bhoovarahan Thirumalai, Chairman, Energy Committee, SICCI, highlighting the importance of footprints and the need for industries to go for greener energy solutions for their manufacturing plants and at the same time the need to provide low costs energy solutions. The event was inaugurated by the Chief Guest, Ms. Mridula Ramesh, who gave a brilliant talk on the pertinent problem of Solar Energy utilisation, and its feasibility for industries. Ms. Mridula stared out her speech with a reminder of the issue of global warming and its impact on the global energy scenario. While India is a significant emitter of greenhouse gases, there is the larger problem of so-called developed countries emitting gases in disproportionately higher rates – an issue that has to be addressed. She also spoke on the need to look for alternatives source of energy – such as Solar Thermal which although are relatively unpopular are ideal for certain applications.   The event also featured a white paper released on the topic of Sustainability and Security in Industrial Energy Use: Hits and Misses on Solar Energy Integration by Prof Satyanarayan Seshadri, IIT- Madras. Prof Satya emphasized on the need to for the most ideal source of energy that would minimise the loss of energy. The end user experiences were shared by Mahindra & Mahindra Limited and TVS Motors. Mahindra had installed a 563 kW Solar PV in the Car parking area – and shared his experiences when installing the system. This reduced their reliance on the grid and reduce their costs significantly. The finance model they used for the installation is based on an ESCO model with the billing being done for the energy delivered to the plant. TVS shared their experience of installing a 225 kW Solar Thermal system for heating their Diesel Generator heads for quick start during cold conditions. The system\’s objective was to reduce the fuel energy costs incurred for heating. TVS turned towards Aspiration Energy for alternative energy sources for their heating needs and deciding on using Solar Thermal systems. They had a look into the working of Solar Thermal systems by a live case from the installation in Harita Seatings in Hosur. The challenges faced during the installation were also shared. The solar thermal has since been monitored constantly and has been proven to save around 60 percent of the energy costs. With this, the TVS motors have been able to reduce massive amounts of carbon emissions as well. But both the talks had a common theme of complexity involved when going green but needing to look at economics on installing the system. The event also witnessed a roundtable discussion that saw interactions among the participants and the speakers. In the end, one thing was sure – that everyone had taken back something from the event – for some it was new networking opportunities, and for some, it was great ideas that they could take back to their organisations to implement to yet again share a story to the world.

Blog, Case Studies, Solar thermal

Case Study – Solar Thermal System For Diesel Generator Engine Block Heating

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  ABSTRACT   Due to the rapid industrial growth in India, many corporate and industrial companies are moving towards renewable and energy efficient systems for their process systems to reduce their utility cost. As a new member to this venture, TVS Motors met with the pioneers of energy efficient heating solutions provider, Aspiration Energy Private Limited to utilize solar thermal energy for their engine head block heating. Initially, the electrical heaters with forced circulation systems were used to heat the engine block head to 55 °C.   Preliminarily, Aspiration Energy did an energy survey of electrical heater consumption pattern and temperature requirement and proposed a suitable energy efficient rooftop solar thermal system.   The 225 kW system is installed on the rooftop of the plant occupying a roof space of 749 m2. The modules have been arranged in a series – parallel combination to maintain the required temperature of 55 °C at the end application. The project was designed to deliver heat for 24-hour operations. A lagged, unsheltered storage tank had been installed which acts as a thermal energy accumulator. The thermal energy generated is accumulated inside this accumulator during the sunshine hours and utilized when the solar irradiation is not available.   The plant is installed on CAPEX model. Through the installation of 225 kW Solar ETC plant, the average savings per day is 1031 kWh and the average heater energy consumption per day is 169 kWh, for the one month performance observation.   This has enabled TVS to eliminate significant carbon footprint with the replacement of their energy source with a renewable source.   INTRODUCTION   For smoother starting of industrial generators, it is provided with water jackets over the engine cylinder for quick start in cold weather as well as reducing the diesel consumption at the startup. Typically, most of the industrial generators use block heater to serve this purpose. A block heater warms an engine to increase the chances that the engine will start as well as warm up the engine cylinder faster than it normally would in extremely cold weather.   The most common type is an electric heating element in the cylinder block, connected through a power supply. The block heater may replace one of the engine\’s core plugs. In this fashion, the heater element is immersed in the engine\’s coolant, which then keeps most of the engine warm. This type of heater does not come with a pump. They may also be installed in line with one of the radiator or heater hoses. Some heaters pump and circulate the engine coolant while heating; others only heat the still coolant in the reservoir.   The Diesel Generators of 4 numbers installed in TVS Motors use forced circulation engine heating systems. The rated capacity of each block heaters is 25kW. The heater maintains the engine block temperature to 55 °C.   BACKGROUND   TVS Motor is the third largest two-wheeler manufacturer in India, with revenue of 11,244 Cr INR (2015-16). The company has annual production capacity of 3.2 million 2 wheelers & 1.2 Lakh 3 wheelers. TVS Motor Company Ltd (TVS Motor), member of the TVS group (Revenue around INR. 40,000 Cr in 2015-16), is the largest company of the group in terms of size and turnover.   TVS Motor, Hosur (TVSM) plant uses Diesel Generator as a backup power source during the time of power failures. To reduce the start-up time of the Diesel generator the engine head must be maintained at constant temperature and this is done with the help of forced circulation electrical heating system. Because of this continuous requirement to maintain constant temperature in the engine block, the electrical heaters consume about 1200 kWh per day.   With the help of Aspiration Energy, TVSM planned to reduce their power consumption along with their carbon footprint for this application.   The main objective of this project is to replace the existing heating system with solar thermal system on unused roof structure.   SOLUTION   After detailed study and analysis on the energy consumption pattern for the electrical heaters, Aspiration Energy came up with a highly efficient solar thermal system design with energy accumulator to serve the heat requirement for 24-hour operation of engine head block heating.   The designed capacity of total system is 225 kW and consists of 50 modules of 4.5 kW each. The solar thermal systems are designed in such a way that even at the winter season, the system will deliver the required heat output to maintain the engine block temperature at 55 °C.         The system is designed with butterfly-shaped Evacuated Glass Tube Collectors (ETC). Each ETC module is rated at 4.5 kW thermal capacity with 7.7 m2 aperture area.   The system was installed with 2 modules in series connection and 25 pairs of modules in parallel connection with reverse return header.   The primary circulation of the system was driven by a multistage centrifugal pump which circulates water from storage tank to solar thermal modules and back to storage tank. When solar direct radiation falls on ETC glass tubes, the water flowing through the tubes heats up and returns to storage tank. After multiple passes through the modules, the water can be heated up to 95 °C at maximum solar radiation.   The hot water stored in the tank is pumped by secondary circulation pump and delivers it to the plate heat exchangers installed for each generator.   The plate heat exchangers are integrated in such a way that the existing heater element is connected parallel to the plate heat exchanger – so that the electrical heater acts as the main heating element when solar thermal is idle in adverse weather conditions.   The engine heads are heated up by indirect heat transfer between the solar water and jacket water with the use of plate heat exchanger. The hot water from solar thermal modules flows in hot side while the jacket water from engine from engine circulation flows through the cold side.   After successfully installing the system, the average savings per

Aspiration Energy, Blog, Solar thermal, Webinar

Good practices in maintaining industrial solar water heaters

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A common claim among the users of solar heaters is its inefficiency  to generate heat as time progresses. A system installed with large sums of investment does not do justice to its value. They do however have some underlying causes. This problem is the cause of lack of maintenance.   Industrial Solar Heaters are sustainable energy sources that provide heating solutions for applications with temperature requirements of up to 120 deg C. They reduce the use of fossil fuels and also significantly reduce energy costs by the using the sun\’s energy to deliver heat to the processes. This also means that the solar heater\’s system performance depends on the solar radiation at the site.   A conventional solar hot water system consists of solar collectors, piping, strainer, pumps etc. Each of these is a system in itself and requires proper maintenance – both general and breakdown for flawless functioning. This webinar deals with the maintenance issues that are part of having a solar heater. Good practices in maintaining industrial solar water heaters from Aspiration Energy Pvt Ltd [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PtW1lVGuqg]

Blog, Solar thermal, White Paper

7 Reasons to consider Roof Top Solar Thermal than Solar PV

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  Solar Energy is most often implied as Solar Photovoltaic Energy with electric energy as the output.Solar thermal energy is not as predominant in the Solar Renewable energy scenario as Solar PV. Let us consider the current scenario around the world.  The total Solar Thermal Capacity being utilised in the world currently is 465 GigaWatts. This mostly is accounted by small scale and household utilisation. This, when compared to the solar photovoltaic base capacity installed – around 303 GW – is more than 50 percent higher.        Having said that, the industrial utilisation of Solar Heating systems remains paltry. 100 Million Tonnes of Oil is used in Industries for heating applications of which 15 million tonnes are used for below 250°C applications. This amounts to around 93 GW Solar Potential for under 250°C and approximately 20GW potential for under 100°C applications   This is huge in terms of unharnessed solar energy, potentially saving millions of rupees and carbon emissions. We shall now look into this disparity in terms of pragmatic factors.   The cost of Solar Thermal Solutions is more than 1 to 2 crores cheaper for every MW generated using Solar Power technologies. Space occupied by a solar heater is  3000 sq. m whereas 1 MW solar PV takes about 10000 sq. m.. Energy produced by solar heaters in a year also is often more than Solar PV. Why then is  Solar PV still more prevalent?     The reasons vary from low awareness on the potential Solar heating Technologies to the unappealing nature of  Solar Thermal Systems to Low Media coverage on its success.   With governments focusing on more and more sustainable energy solutions these forms also deserve the same attention, if not better, than the usual renewable energy solutions.   In the following series of blog posts posted every Thursday, we shall look into the 7 factors that make Solar thermal Solutions more feasible than Solar Photovoltaic systems and study the processes of implementing these systems.        

Blog, Heat Pumps, Solar thermal

Accomplish decarbonizing with Heat Pump and Solar Thermal systems

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Our energy system is extraordinarily carbon-intensive and highly polluting. Consider this. In 2013, only 3% of India’s primary energy demand (both electricity and thermal energy) was met by non-carbon sources (predominantly nuclear and renewables that do not include biomass) (Source: International Energy Agency). Fossil fuels account for 73% of the total source of energy, and biomass accounts for 24%. While biomass is considered a renewable energy source, it is still carbon-based and a polluting source. It goes without saying that unless the energy sources are decarbonized, there is no way for India to grow in a clean and greenway. It is true not only for India but also for the entire world. Countries across the globe are launching new initiatives to tackle global climate change, reducing pollution and improving quality of life by deploying technologies that can decarbonize energy. Global scenario One very specific and highly visible example is the Coal to Electricity program launched by the Chinese central and local governments to combat the high levels of air pollution and haze in China, especially Beijing, during winters. In December 2015, Beijing declared its first Air Quality Red Alert, as a result of the elevated smog within the city, and shut down schools and some industrial areas as a result of the air pollution levels. Widespread coal combustion for providing heat during winters is a major factor attributed to the high levels of air pollution during winter in Beijing. (New Delhi faces a similar problem, and in December 2016, Telegraph newspaper ran a story titled “ Pollution in Delhi hits new heights as tourists take smog selfies”). Under the Coal to Electricity program, the government mandated the replacement of coal-fired boilers by electrical heating devices like electric resistance-based heaters and Heat Pumps. The government gave about 90% subsidy on the capital equipment for the replacement of coal-based heating devices. According to the China Heat Pump Alliance, around 161,000 Heat Pumps were installed in 2016 in Beijing under the “Coal to Electricity” Programme and the Beijing government gave a subsidy of 5 Billion RMB for these Heat Pumps. This and the Chinese government\’s other programs are expected to reduce localized pollution due to decarbonization in cities like Beijing. While China’s decarbonization programs are implemented out of immediate needs, Europe, especially Germany, has been taking more proactive policy approaches. For example, Germany, as part of its Energiewende, has a national goal to increase the % of renewable heat to 14% by 2020. Towards that, “from January 1, 2016—construction of new buildings will only be permitted if they use energy generated from renewable sources for space and water heating. This includes the use of solar, solar thermal, biomass, efficient heat pumps, etc. Oil burners are completely banned as a means of heating new buildings.” More recently, during the last week of June 2017, several stakeholders in Europe come together to “launch two campaigns committed to ushering renewable and low-carbon energy to the forefront of Europe’s power landscape”. Both the campaigns – the Electrification Alliance and Make Power Clean – target the decarbonization of energy using renewable(solar/wind) energy generation(electricity) and promotion of renewable heat technologies like Heat Pumps and Solar Thermal(for heating requirements). According to the proponents of these initiatives, 30% of power in Europe comes from renewables, and this share is expected to touch 50% in a decade. Indian scenario As mentioned earlier, in India, energy is almost entirely carbon-based, across every sector. This is especially true in the case of the industry sector. The government of India has set ambitious targets for renewable energy – 100 GW Solar PV and 75 GW Wind installed capacity by 2022. However, more needs to be done to decarbonize the energy systems faster. That includes replacing fossil fuels with electricity generated using renewable sources, and by extracting and using renewable heat using technologies like Heat Pumps and Solar Thermal systems. Decarbonizing with Heat Pump and Solar Thermal systems Both the ambient heat extraction technologies – Heat Pumps and Solar Thermal systems – have been around for a long time, and are proven and mature from a technology perspective. (Details about how these technologies work can be found here(Heat Pumps) and here(Solar Thermal)). In industrial applications, Heat Pumps and Solar Thermal systems can be highly cost-effective with payback periods as low as 1 year depending on the capacity utilization. These applications have also helped reduce localized pollution for several of Aspiration Energy’s customers, and have led to a significant reduction in carbon footprint by decarbonizing the Heat sources. For example, in the case of one of our customers, we were able to demonstrate more than 50% savings in energy cost and about 50% reduction in CO2 emissions per year by switching to a Heat Pump, as below. Read the entire case study here. Similarly, one of our other customers was able to reduce about 20-25 tonnes of LPG per year by installing a 360 kW online rooftop solar thermal system. (Download the case study here). Conclusion Decarbonization of energy systems is critical for the environment and will have a significant positive bottom-line impact. Decarbonization of electricity by installing Solar and Wind power projects is well known, and it is now time to place more emphasis on decarbonizing Heat by deploying renewable thermal technologies like Heat Pumps and Solar Thermal systems. The climb is steep but would be well worth it.

Aspiration Energy, Blog, Solar thermal

Few questions; few answers (2) – About Aspiration Energy

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Continuation of Few question; few answers (1) How financially sustainable is our organisational model? The project cost includes the cost of engineering, erection and commissioning. O&M and AMC charges are billed separately. The Project ROI / Interest costs along with conservative estimates of energy generation are factored in, while calculating the pay-per-unit price quoted to the customer. How scalable are our activities? What is the size of the opportunity in terms of the potential addressable market for our services? Target customers and our figures against external data. All industrial heating applications in the 60-120 Deg Cel are potential target for our solution.  The applications are spread across almost all manufacturing sectors such as Automobile, Engineering, Food, Dairy etc. New technologies in Effluent Treatment-Evaporation (ETP) also operate in the 90-120 Deg Cel range. The KPMG report of 2012, estimates the realistic size of the Indian market for Solar Thermal in Low temperature Industrial heating applications as 20,000 MW (70 Million SQ MTR of thermal collectors to replace 4.8 Million Tons of Oil per year) (Source: Solarthermal World Page 65 Section 7.2.2) We can contribute at least 10,000 MW. At an average of 2 MW per project, this will require 5000+ projects to be executed through 50+ partners across India over 5 years. We can also offer our solution and business model to customers outside India by working through local partners in each country. Impact 20% The scale of impact that our organisation\’s achievements have had, technically, organizationally and socially. For you to understand the significance of this, we have provided tangible, quantitative figures and comparisons.  The obstacles we face and how we try to overcome. Currently we have 2 major industrial customers totaling 1200 KW of capacity and 3 ongoing customers close to 500 KW of capacity. This is excluding the small canteen applications we have done for others. The details are as below:  Installation: Wheels India Limited Chennai Project size & type 630 KWth – Auto Hybrid Solar thermal energy produced 3780 KWh / day Fossil fuel equivalent 383 liters / day Fuel replaced Furnace oil Annual carbon abatement 2,80,800 Kg Application Pre-treatment process Payment Model to AEPL Monthly payment  Installation: Sona Koyo Steering Systems Limited Chennai Project size & type 210 KWth – Auto Hybrid Solar thermal energy produced 1260 KWh / day Fossil fuel equivalent 120 liters / day Fuel replaced Diesel Annual carbon abatement 97,000 Kg Application Pre-treatment process Payment Model to AEPL Monthly Payment The social, environmental and economical impact of our achievement due to the innovation in technology and business model will be huge once there is wide spread adoption of this by the industry for <120 Deg Cel applications. We have so far identified 120 MW of applications. Seriously interested customers are 25-30 MW. But the actual installed base is only 1.2 MW. This is because the voluntary adoption and decision making process in the industry is very slow. Worldwide and in India, the importance given to Solar PV is not given to Solar Industrial Heating. It is 20,000 MW opportunity in India alone, that can be achieved without any Government Subsidy. When the cost of solar thermal energy (after factoring all risks and commercial finance cost) in pay per unit ESCO model without subsidy is between Rs 4.5 to 6.0 per KWH, continuing to burn 4.8 Billion Tons of Oil per year for such applications is a criminal waste. IEA task 49, GIZ So Pro, WWF are some pioneers that have identified this and hence involve us in their activities, recognize and support us currently. (To be continued)

Blog, Solar thermal

Small Renewable Projects Eligible For Priority Sector Lending in India

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The Reserve Bank of India said it will make small renewable energy projects eligible for priority financing. The nation\’s banks will offer loans of up to 150 million Indian rupees ($2.37 million) for purposes such as the purchase of solar-based power generators, biomass-based power generators and windmills, as well as for non conventional energy-based public utilities such as street-lighting and remote village electrification systems. For individual households, the loan limit will be 1 million Indian rupees ($15,800) per borrower. Under the priority lending route, banks must provide 40 percent of the net banking credit to specified sectors, according to the Reserve Bank of India\’s April 23 announcement. Vishal Pandya, director of REConnect Energy, told Bloomberg BNA April 27 that priority sector lending will bring significant traction to the rooftop solar industry, “especially for industrial and commercial consumers across states where industrial and commercial [electricity] tariffs are higher.” Wind, small hydroelectric and biomass-based projects also will benefit, he added. India has a target of installing 175 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2022 as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi\’s goal of 24-hour power supply, clean drinking water and a toilet for each household by India\’s 75th year of independence.

Blog, Solar thermal

Solar Thermal Power plant vs Solar Thermal Energy Plant

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I am asked in many forums about the delays and cost over-runs of solar thermal power plants, and how we have chosen to play in this field. Lets understand the differences: 1. Solar Thermal Power plants deliver electrical power – produce steam using sun, and produce electricity by running a power turbine using the steam. Solar heaters that we deliver directly deliver heated water into process heating systems. The sunshine is converted to heat, and used as heat energy. In Solar Thermal Power, sunshine is collected as heat, and then converted to electricity. 2. The technology that we use (ETC – Evacuated Tube Collectors) has a worldwide installation base of 175 GW. (64.6% of thw total worldwide installed base of solar heaters of 269. GW). This is comparable to 142 GW of solar power installations worldwide.  and 3.65 GW of solar thermal power plants worldwide.  Contrary to popular belief, solar heaters are HUGE and has been proven for decades. 3. Solar thermal power plants are based on optical concentrators, and the concentrating technology is relatively new, not yet fully proven.  ETC collectors have been around for more than 3 decades.  (Take an extract from session called brief history.  We need to make our own version of history, not from here.   You can learn more about ETC Collectors here. ETC is certainly a mature technology whereas concentrating solar is a relatively new field, yet to prove its mettle, while holding a lot of promise. ~Bhoo, CEO, Aspiration Energy

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