Two Advanced Solar Photovoltaic facilities inaugurated in Haryana

New Delhi, May 14 (UNI) Minister of State for New and Renewable Energy Vilas Muttemwar today inaugurated two Advanced Solar Photovoltaic facilities, saying that with this a milestone has been achieved by the Solar Energy Centre (SEC).

Noting that the Solar Energy Centre, located at Gwalpahari, Haryana, is now well equipped to meet the emerging requirement of industry as per international standards, the minister assured necessary government help to the centre in getting accreditation from International Electro Technical Commission on quality assurance in the field of Solar Photovoltaic.

Facilities available at SEC include a large area sun simulator and a photovoltaic concentrator module test bed.

He expressed the hope that with the help of dedicated and enthusiastic manpower at SEC, international accreditation would be available shortly. The centre is also in the process of obtaining international accreditation of its test facility which would help domestic PV module manufacturers to test their product in India and find a market abroad.

Referring to the boom in PV industry worldwide, the minister called for gearing up to meet the challenge of large-scale demand of solar cells. On the recent announcement of policy for grid connected power production from both solar photovoltaic and solar thermal route, Mr Muttemwar said the government would provide generation based incentives up to Rs 12 kw a hour for getting connected SEC power plant and Rs 10 kw a hour for solar thermal power plant.

The large area sun simulator will make it possible to evaluate the performance of PV modules of size 200cm X 200cm, having a capacity of about 600 W. Initiatives have been taken by SEC to design and procure environmental chambers to accommodate such large area modules for their qualification testing.

The complete test facility for large area modules is expected to be in place within a year so that performance and qualification testing of large area PV modules can be undertaken at SEC as per international standards.

The other system inaugurated today is a photovoltaic concentrator module test bed, a unique facility of its kind in the country, using the latest high efficiency multi junction concentrator solar cells technology modules. The concentrator modules require less area of solar cells and therefore use less amount of expensive semiconductor material. These are essentially the third generation PV technology that promises high efficiency, low cost systems with economically competitive cost of electricity generation.

Earlier in his welcome address, Dr B Bandyopadhyay, head of SEC and adviser in the Ministry, gave details about the Centre.

UNI SD SP KN2958