Page 9 - JCERDC Status Report

Research Thrusts

SERIIUS carries out fundamental and applied ¾ Decrease solar collector cost with innovative SERIIUS
research, analysis and assessment, outreach, designs and optical materials.
and workforce development through specific This thrust comprises three research activities to
bi-national projects in three distinct yet meet these objectives over a range of scales:
interconnected Research Thrusts:
Sustainable Photovoltaics (PV) • Development of distributed CSP for high solar
insolation areas based on Supercritical CO -
2
Sustainable Photovoltaics Research Thrust Brayton cycle having >50% cycle efficiency
focuses on three coupled activities designed at relatively low receiver temperature (700-
to significantly accelerate the development of 800ºC) (100-kW to 1-MW size); development
disruptive photovoltaic technologies in India and of test loop, receivers, heat exchangers, cost-
the U.S. and to provide a foundation on which a effective heliostat design and tracking system
future Indian PV industry can be bulit. for Indian conditions.

• PV based on earth-abundant, available • Medium-temperature Organic Rankine
materials with performance potential Cycle (ORC) operating at <300°C to
comparable to, or exceeding, existing thin- develop cycle efficiency >20% (25-kW
film systems. to 1-MW size), development of test loop;
• Novel process and processing technologies optical coating materials, high efficiency
that can produce cells and modules with positive displacement ORC expanders, heat
low production and capital cost, low thermal exchangers, and cost-effective parabolic
budget, and environmental sustainability trough solar collector with optical efficiency
(e.g., non-vacuum deposition processes). >70%.

• Characterizing materials and devices in • Thermal storage and hybridization, to develop
real-world environments, reliability and hybridized storage systems for the diverse
performance studies in harsh environments temperature ranges of the Brayton and ORC
that can feed predictive models to iteratively converters.
improve and predict materials and device Solar Energy Integration
reliability. The Solar Energy Integration (SEI) Thrust focuses
Multiscale Concentrated Solar Power on the identification, analysis, and assessment of
Multiscale Concentrated Solar Power Research Thrust technical, economic, environmental, and policy
aspects for developing and executing solar
focuses on high-efficiency, scalable, distributable technologies in India including understanding
CSP. For solar plants, the capital cost of setting resources, infrastructure, constraints, scale,
up a plant is a major contributor to the levelized deployment scenarios, and policy needs.
cost of energy (LCOE). In CSP plants, the cost
of solar field is typically about 60% of the total The major research activities are:
cost. Accordingly, the SERIIUS approach toward • Technology road-mapping, analysis, and
significant reduction in LCOE is two-pronged: assessment.
¾ Increase the power block cycle efficiency. • Solar-energy integration and storage analysis.

Status Report 2015 9