CSP in India: mixed prospect

Is CSP a good option for India? Maps from NASA and Meteonorm show a range of approximately 1800-2200 kWh/m2/year for DNI across India, an annual DNI resource comparable to the best European sites such as Spain, though lower than the best sites in the USA and Australia. The northwest of India is widely recognised as having the best sites in the country. Jodhpur, on the edge of the Thar desert, is almost exactly comparable on an annual average basis to Granada, one of the best Spanish sites.

However, the Indian Renewable Energy Status Report notes that there is no established capability in India for CSP manufacture and there is a gap in Engineering, Procurement and Construction capability for setting up and running CSP plants. In examining the barriers to technology transfer for renewable energy technologies for India, the report identifies: product suitability to Indian conditions, difficulty in accessing market information for foreign companies, limitations in infrastructure availability, and difficulty of financing.

Published cost estimates for India vary by a factor of nearly 80 percent from lowest to highest. High current costs are an immediate barrier. Prior to the closing of the Solar Mission's phase 1 applications in December 2010, potential developers suggested that the Solar Mission CSP tariff was not sufficient. The fact that the Request for Selection was oversubscribed and that the shortlist of developers offered discounts on the tariff ranging from around Rs.3 to 5 off the Rs.15.3/kWh cap would suggest that some developers believe that cost is not an insurmountable barrier.

The World Bank's analysis of CSP costs versus the Solar Mission phase 1 tariff cap concluded that with either tower or trough technology and either wet or dry cooling, projects would not be viable even under the maximum allowed tariff. If this is the case, then cost remains a large barrier to CSP in India. On a positive note, a range of financial and regulatory incentives were analysed and it was concluded that all measures taken together were sufficient to make projects viable.