Institute of Management Nirma University, Ahmedabad

Project Management August 8, 2011

Project : TO BUILDING 5 MW SOLAR POWER PLANT Submitted To: - Prof. H.K.Shrivastava

Submitted by:DHAWAL PATEL (101217) MBA FT II

INTRODUCTION
With depletion of natural resource, increase in pollutant levels in atmosphere and hazardous nuclear leakages people are now moving towards renewable sources of energy which are now also termed as Clean Energy. Solar energy or heat is a major source of clean energy. Since many decades solar heat is harvested using various devices like solar cooker, solar water heater etc. But as electrical energy is a standard for running appliances and machineries, replacing all of them was not feasible. So only solution is to harvest solar energy in very large scale and convert into electricity. Government of India is giving special attention in development of solar power plants. All state electricity boards are given responsibilities to promote solar power plants by buying all the electricity produces at a higher rate as defined by a regulatory commission. Brief notes on the tariff plan decided by Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commissionis given in Appendix 1. GOI has setup IREDA ltd. (Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency) to assist any renewable energy harvesting projects financially as well as technically.

Harvesting technology:
There are two major solar harvesting technologies: Photovoltaic Cells (a.k.a. Solar Cells): These are thin discs made up of doped semiconducting materials which generate potential difference across its surfaces when light falls on it. These provide simplest method of producing electricity using solar light. Most of solar power plant currently in India works on this technology. There is no moving parts involved so it is theoretically maintenance free. Photovoltaic cells are currently very expensive and inefficient (amount of electricity produced to solar energy incandescent). Efficiency of photovoltaic cells deteriorates by approx. 10% every year.

Solar Thermal:
Solar thermal power plants converts solar heat into mechanical energy which is then converted into electricity by an alternator. There are many setups designed for this purpose e.g. Solar steam turbine, Solar chimney, Solar Stirling engine, etc. These machines are more efficient than photovoltaic cells and also cost effective. But these machines are much complex and require frequent maintenance.

Solar Stirling engine is selected as appropriate technology for harvesting. Stirling engine is a type of hot air engine operated by the compression and expansion of working fluid at different temperature levels such that it results into conversion of heat energy into mechanical energy. The power produced

by Stirling engine depends mainly on the difference between hot temperature a.k.a. Source and cold temperature a.k.a. Sink. Stirling engine has Carnot efficiency of 100% and practical efficiency of as high as 35 40 %. A typical Stirling engine consists of two piston cylinder assembly, one piston is connected to source and other to sink. Working fluid expands when it enters into hot cylinder and contracts when enters cold cylinder. During this process working fluid doesnt leave cylinder. So the construction of engine is also easy. Solar Stirling engine consists of a solar collector which collect sunlight and concentrates on the Stirling engine fitted at the focal point of the collector. This acts as the hot temperature source and blower or water radiator is used for heat rejection i.e. sink. Both the collector and engine are mounted on a rotating frame which is always guided so that collector faces sun by a solar tracking system.

As the Solar Stirling engine uses water evaporator for heat rejection it has to be located in a dry climate and less rainfall. Deesa, Gujarat is under consideration as prospect site for location of power plant.

Project Definition
Project Objective:
To construct a Solar Stirling Engine based power plant with installed capacity of 5 MW.

Deliverables:
Fully operational 200 x 25 kW Solar Stirling engines fitted with alternator, Inverter and Parabolic solar collector fitted on rotating frame with solar tracking and guiding system. Fully functional Switch yard and transformer substation. Cooling tower for water.

Milestones: *Yet to be decided. Limits and Exclusions:

Any brick and mortar buildings like Control room, Office building, check post and fence are not included.

Time and costs for acquiring Government licences and permissions is not included.

Refrences: IREDA ltd. Websites Solar tariff page. - http://www.ireda.gov.in/Solar/index%20-%20Copy.htm Wikipedia Solar Stirling engine page - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirling_engine Photo taken from Stirling Energy Systems webpage - http://www.stirlingenergy.com/how-itworks.htm * Other information are from my prior knowledge about the subject.