Dadri coal unit to get Fresnel solar boost

Thermax, an Indian energy and environment company and Frenell, a German concentrated solar power (CSP) company have been awarded a contract by IndianstateownedutilityNTPCtointegrate a solar field with the Dadri coal fired plant in Uttar Pradesh, India. The ground breaking ceremony was held on 4 November 2016. Completion is scheduled for September 2017.

The solar field will use Frenell’s CSP technology, which employs flat mirrors using the Fresnel principle. With a surface of 33 000m2, the solar field will feed annually 14 GWh of heat into the water–steam cycle of a 210 MW coal unit on the Dadri site. The CSP system will be used to heat the feedwater supplied to the plant’s boiler, allowing coal consumption to be reduced.

In a competitive tender process among three international EPC companies, the Fresnel technology won out over parabolic trough and solar tower technology, says Frenell.

Thermax will be acting as the EPC contractor to NTPC and is responsible for design, engineering, procurement and supply of the entire solar thermal plant and balance-of-plant equipment as well as for integration of the solar field with the coal fired power station. Frenell will deliver its CSP technology as subcontractor and will execute the turnkey manufacturing and construction of the solar field.

“This project is of high strategic importance for India as it introduces a new option for power generating companies to improve the efficiency of their coal fired power stations. This solution will also contribute to the national target of at least 3% solar share of total power generation by 2022,” said M S Unnikrishnan, CEO of Thermax. “Compared to green field CSP plants, this is a cost efficient application as the existing thermal power station infrastructure can be used. The total market potential of this solution in India is estimated to be 1700 MW”.

The required CSP fluid temperature for the Dadri coal project is 250°C, well below the 550°C that the system is designed to achieve.