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: The Acme group is about to set a new benchmark in the solar energy industry. It is on schedule to complete the first phase (5 mw) of its grid-interactive 10-mw solar thermal power project at an approximate cost of Rs 15 crore/mw by March 2010, in Rajasthan. It is in contrast to solar thermal plants all over the world, which cost Rs 18-20 crore/mw, and solar photo voltaic plants, which cost Rs 18-25 crore/mw currently, according to industry sources.
Acme, an energy and telecommunications infrastructure solution provider, estimates that its cost would come down to Rs 13/mw for the subsequent 100 mw. For a total installed capacity of 2,000 mw, the company is confident that the cost can be reduced to Rs 8/mw.
Manoj Kumar Upadhyay, founder, Acme group, says, “We can reach grid parity energy cost much earlier than the time frame envisaged in the National Solar Mission. With initial government support in the form of feed-in-tariff, low-cost funding and opportunities to achieve economies of scale, we can bring down the cost of supplying solar thermal power to Rs 5.80/kWh by 2015.” The national solar plan targets to achieve grid tariff parity by 2020.
In addition to its Rajasthan project, Acme has put in place a supply chain for setting up more plants. It is setting up a 5-mw plant in Maharashtra and has also signed MoUs with the governments of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh for setting up solar thermal power plants of 110 mw and 100 mw, respectively. In Rajasthan, proposals for the installation of 200 mw of solar thermal power are at various stages of discussion.
Acme claims it’s able to bring down the costs because it has a licensing agreement with US-based eSolar to access its proprietary solar thermal technology for 10 years to generate 1,000 mw in India. As a master licensee of eSolar’s technology, Acme gets an exclusive right to set up solar thermal plants in India and access its complete value chain in component sourcing, power plant deployment and operations. The Acme group has invested $30 million in eSolar for 5% stock.
eSolar has slashed costs by leveraging the deployment of IT, cutting down on the use of material like steel, and offering prefabricated and scalable solutions for large scale deployment of solar thermal power plants. Such plants can be installed in multiples of 2.5 mw. The technology employs thousands of microprocessor directed mirrors to converge sunrays on a tower equipped with a receiver to boil water, thereby producing steam to run conventional turbines for generating electricity. “eSolar’s thermal technology not only helps cut down on costs, but also scale up fast and connect with the grid,” says Upadhyay.
Acme can reduce costs more than eSolar because it can source boilers and turbines manufactured domestically by small & medium enterprises. Even mirrors, which are currently sourced from a global company, can be manufactured domestically.
Last week, eSolar demonstrated the successful deployment of its technology when it unveiled a 5-mw pilot solar thermal power plant using 24,000 flat mirrors spread over 20 acres of land to generate 5 mw in California. The Sierra SunTower, which took less than a year to set up, can fulfil the energy needs of up to 4,000 homes and offset CO2 emissions of more than 7,000 tonne. It’s equivalent to planting 5,265 acres of trees, getting 1,368 automobiles off the road and avoiding the use of 6,50,000 gallons of gasoline, according to eSolar.
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