Large Solar Projects Research Articles

Planning and developing large solar power plants: A case study of 750 MW Rewa Solar Park in India

India introduced a national solar mission in 2009 with initial target of achieving 20 GW of solar installations by 2022. In 2014, the target was revised to 100 GW and a solar park scheme was launched to promote large solar power projects. The planning for Rewa Ultra Mega Solar (RUMS) Park, the largest grid connected solar power plant the time in India, began in 2014 and the full commercial generation started in 2020. At a levelized tariff of Rs 3.30 (∼USD 0.04) per unit for 25 years, it is one of the cheapest solar power producing plants in the world. In this paper we describe in detail the planning and development of RUMS park, review the common risks associated with large renewable projects and specifically analyze ways in which RUMS Park has tried to mitigate those risks. Insights are useful for designing policies and planning for large solar projects in India and elsewhere. • Multiple project design and coordination mechanisms reduced economic and financial risk. • Transparency and timeliness in land identification and acquisition reduced policy and regulatory risk. • Use of single contiguous barren land, higher compensation, and local employment reduced social risk. • Involvement of global institutions and reverse bidding generated investor confidence.

Keep it local and low-key: Social acceptance of alpine solar power projects

Impressive growth rates of solar photovoltaics (PV) in higher latitudes are raising concerns about seasonal mismatches between demand and supply. Locating utility-scale PV projects in alpine regions with high solar irradiation could help to meet demand during the winter season. However, similar to wind farms, large solar projects change the landscape and may therefore face social acceptance issues. In contrast to the rich literature on wind energy, social acceptance of solar power has received less attention. This paper helps close this gap with the help of a large-scale survey (N = 1036) that examines the acceptance of alpine solar projects in Switzerland through choice experiments. In addition to attributes that are well established in the social acceptance literature, such as local ownership, along with both distributional and procedural justice, we also investigate the influence of innovative design elements on acceptance. Our findings suggest that local ownership, as well as colored solar panels that reduce the perceived landscape change may increase social acceptance, implying that projects should be kept local and low-key. We also find that acceptance of alpine solar projects is higher among the affected population than among inhabitants of non-alpine regions.

High performance integrated solar combined cycles with minimum modifications to the combined cycle power plant design

The integration of solar energy into natural gas combined cycles has been successfully demonstrated in several integrated solar combined cycles since the beginning of this decade in many countries. There are many motivations that drive investments on integrated solar combined cycles which are primarily the repowering of existing power plants, the compliance with more severe environmental laws on emissions and the mitigation of risks associated with large solar projects. Integrated solar combined cycles are usually developed as brownfield facilities by retrofitting existing natural gas combined cycles and keeping the existing equipment to minimize costs. In this work a detailed off-design model of a 390MWe three pressure level natural gas combined cycle is built to evaluate different integration schemes of solar energy which either keep the equipment of the combined cycle unchanged or include new equipment (steam turbine, heat recovery steam generator). Both power boosting and fuel saving operation strategies are analyzed in the search for the highest annual efficiency and solar share. Results show that the maximum incremental power output from solar at design solar irradiance is limited to 19MWe without modifications to the existing equipment. Higher values are attainable only including a larger steam turbine. High solar radiation-to-electrical efficiencies in the range 24–29% can be achieved in the integrated solar combined cycle depending on solar share and extension of tube banks in the heat recovery steam generator. Compared to power boosting, the fuel saving strategy shows lower thermal efficiencies of the integrated solar combined cycle due to the efficiency drop of gas turbine at reduced loads. Without modifications to the existing equipment the maximum solar share of the total generated electricity is only about 1%.