PRESENTATION ON

SOLAR POWER
POWER STATION PRACTICE

By
M. V. S. Mahesh &
R. J. Varun Kumar
SOLAR POWER
Solar power is the conversion of
energy from sunlight into electricity,
either directly using photovoltaics (PV),
indirectly using concentrated solar
power, or a combination. Concentrated
solar power systems
use lenses or mirrors and solar
tracking systems to focus a large area of
sunlight into a small beam. Photovoltaic
cells convert light into an electric
current using the photovoltaic effect.
Solar Farm located at
Kamuthi, Ramanathpuram, Tamil Nadu.
Methods of Solar Power
Generation
Photovoltaic Cell
A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell (PV), is a voltages or alternating current (AC),
device that converts light into electric using inverters. Multiple solar cells are
current using the photovoltaic effect. connected inside modules. Modules are
The first solar cell was constructed wired together to form arrays, then tied
by Charles Fritts in the 1880s. to an inverter, which produces power at
The array of a photovoltaic power the desired voltage, and for AC, the
system, or PV system, produces direct desired frequency/phase.
current (DC) power which fluctuates
with the sunlight's intensity. For practical
use this usually requires conversion to
certain desired
Concentrated Solar Power
Concentrated solar power (CSP), also
called "concentrated solar thermal",
uses lenses or mirrors and tracking
systems to concentrate sunlight, then
use the resulting heat to generate
electricity from conventional steam-
driven turbines.
A wide range of concentrating
technologies exists among the best
known are the Parabolic Trough,
the Compact Linear Fresnel reflector,
the Dish Stirling and the Solar Power
Tower.
Various techniques are used to track
the sun and focus light. In all these
systems a working fluid is heated by the
concentrated sunlight and is then used
for power generation or energy
storage. Thermal storage efficiently
allows up to 24-hour electricity
generation.
• Parabolic Trough
A Parabolic Trough consists of a linear parabolic reflector that concentrates light onto a
receiver positioned along the reflector's focal line. The receiver is a tube positioned
along the focal points of the linear parabolic mirror and is filled with a working fluid. The
reflector is made to follow the sun during daylight hours by tracking along a single axis.
• Compact Linear Fresnel reflector
Compact Linear Fresnel Reflectors are CSP-plants which use many thin mirror strips
instead of parabolic mirrors to concentrate sunlight onto two tubes with working fluid.
This has the advantage that flat mirrors can be used which are much cheaper than
parabolic mirrors
• Stirling Solar Dish
The Stirling Solar Dish combines a parabolic concentrating dish with a Stirling
engine which normally drives an electric generator. The advantages of Stirling solar over
photovoltaic cells are higher efficiency of converting sunlight into electricity and longer
lifetime. 
• Solar Power Tower
A Solar Power Tower uses an array of tracking reflectors (heliostats) to concentrate light
on a central receiver atop a tower. Power towers can achieve higher (thermal-to-
electricity conversion) efficiency than linear tracking CSP schemes and better energy
storage capability than dish Stirling technologies.
Solar Power In
India
Solar Power in India
• About 5,000 trillion kWh per year energy is incident over India's land area with most
parts receiving 4-7 kWh per sq. m per day.
• National Institute of Solar Energy has assessed the Country’s solar potential of about
748 GW assuming 3% of the waste land area to be covered by Solar PV modules
• National Solar Mission (NSM) was launched on 11th January 2010. The Mission targets
installing 100 GW grid-connected solar power plants by the year 2022.
• This is line with India’s Intended Nationally Determined Contributions(INDCs) target to
achieve about 40 percent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-fossil
fuel-based energy resources and to reduce the emission intensity of its GDP by 33 to 35
percent from 2005 level by 2030.
• Recently, India achieved 5th global position in solar power deployment by surpassing
Italy. Solar power capacity has increased by more than 11 times in the last five years
from 2.6 GW in March,2014 to 30 GW in July 2019. 
 2010 161

2011 461 Year wise cumulative installed capacity of solar power

(As of 31 March Every Year)
2012 1205

2013 2319

2014 2632

2015 3744

Year 2016 6763

2017 12289

2018 21651

2019 28181

2020 34627

0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000 35000 40000

Cumulative Capacity (in GW)

State wise Distribution
 National Solar Mission (NSM) launched on 11th January 2010, is a major initiative of the
Government of India with active participation from States to promote ecological
sustainable growth while addressing India’s energy security challenges. 
 As of 31 March 2020, Karnataka has highest installed capacity of solar energy of
7277.93 MW.
 Rajasthan stands second, having installed capacity of 5137.91 MW.
 Uttarakhand 0
Sikkim 0.07
Meghalaya 0.12
Nagaland 1
Mizoram 1.52 State wise installed capacity of solar power
Goa 4.78 (As of 31 March 2020)
Manipur 5.16
Arunachal Pradesh 5.61
Tripura 9.41
Himachal Pradesh 32.93
Jharkhand 38.4
Assam 41.23
West Bengal 114.46
Kerala 142.23

State
Bihar 151.57
Chhattisgarh 231.35
Haryana 252.14
Odisha 397.84
Punjab 947.1
Uttar Pradesh 1095.1
Maharashtra 1801.8
Madhya Pradesh 2258.46
Gujarat 2948.37
Andhra Pradesh 3610.02
Telangana 3620.75
TamilNadu 3915.88
Rajasthan 5137.91
Karnataka 7277.93
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000

Capacity in GW
Merits and Demerits
Merits
 •This is very much reliable than conventional sources as the fuel (sunlight) is never
ending.
• Solar power is a cleaner substitute for all green house gas emitting sources releasing no
gases like , etc..
• For tropical regions like India, being hit by sun year, solar energy is a very economic
source as it requires no cost to be spent on fuel.
Demerits
• Solar Panels are required to be cleaned periodically to remove off the dust that keeps
sun light from striking the panels.
• Despite being a cleaner source of electricity, BTI has estimated
the solar module waste volume to grow to 1.8 million ton by 2050, which is close to the
total e-waste volume being annually generated in India currently.
• Solar modules use potentially hazardous materials, including lead compounds,
polymers and cadmium compounds.
• Even though the market for solar products has grown rapidly in recent years, the initial
cost of purchasing a solar system is still high. This includes paying for solar panels,
inverter, batteries, wiring, and the installation.
• The more electricity to be produce, the more solar panels are to be installed, as more
sunlight is to be collected. Solar PV panels require a lot of space.
Thank You