Techno economics of solar photovoltaic linear concentrator based combined heat and power systems

Abstract

Energy security is a vital issue towards fulfilling the ever growing energy needs for a populous country like India Urbanization and improved standard of life in the recent past had a lasting impact on the growing energy demands in the country The ever increasing energy demands had caused the energy planners to hunt for viable and eco friendly energy sources to maintain the standards of life Solar energy in the recent years had become a key constituent in the renewable energy mix of India The ever available sunlight throughout the year presents immense potential for exploitation at various levels Photovoltaics and the generation of thermal energy had been the known means of exploiting the solar energy Increased urbanization had also caused lot of space restrictions especially in the cities which becomes a limiting factor for the extensive use of roof tops by the conventional flat panel photovoltaic modules This coupled with the need of thermal energy had paved way for a new and innovative way of solar energy exploitation in the form of concentrating PV cells These cells normally operate under increased illumination due to the solar flux and the current density of the cells is higher due to low internal resistances newline