Solar Energy Centre to receive IITB solar thermal project

The Mumbai-based Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) is continuing to move forward with plans to develop a megawatt-level solar thermal power facility, according to a report today from Diligent Media’s DNA.

More details have been revealed about the facility, proposed last year, which is expected to help generate cost-effective solar thermal power and would be received by the government-backed Solar Energy Centre’s Gurgaon campus.

The center, established in 1982, encourages and enables solar energy research.

The new facility would serve as a national resource center and testing ground for new solar thermal power generation technologies. 

It would also have the potential to supply power to the national grid, though much of India does not have an electrical grid (see Is India getting serious about cleantech?).

The project is being sponsored by the government of India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and is expected to last for five years, but won’t be getting off the ground for another two years, according to DNA. Financial details were not disclosed.

DNA reported that the facility is expected to include a test and simulation component, to be set up by the first industry-based consortium of its kind in India, in conjunction with the IITB.

The research and development hub is expected to allow new technologies, components and systems related to solar thermal power to be tested and scaled.

The IITB also includes a business incubator that has helped to develop cleantech companies, including Mumbai-based Sedemac Mechatronics, a technology startup working on energy-efficient products for automotive and alternative-energy businesses.

The company presented to potential investors at the Cleantech Group’s Mumbai Forum in 2008, and has received an undisclosed investment from Nexus India Capital (see New startups, familiar faces at Mumbai forum and Cleantech cash piles up in Israel).

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