CSIR Develops Hybrid Solar-Biodiesel Power Plant for Renewable Energy in Remote Areas

by Vijay Mohan (Tribune News Service) The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has developed an off-grid solar and biodiesel hybrid power plant that could pave the way for small scale renewable energy generation for uninterrupted power in remote areas, villages and hilly areas.

A prototype of the system, having a peak capacity of 50kW, has been installed at the CSIR’s Centre of Excellence for Farm Machinery in Ludhiana for providing round the clock power.

Currently, major share of the installed power capacity of the country comes from fossil fuel sources like coal, which have serious implications on country's energy security and environmental pollution. These high power centralised generation systems also warrant heavy investment on expensive transmission and distribution infrastructure leading to higher transmission losses.

Prof Harish Hirani, Director, Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute (CMERI) said that in this scenario, localised and region specific distributed generation systems like mini-grids with small scale renewable sources could be potential generators of electricity located near the load centers and can help in addressing energy needs of local communities.

Besides providing power for domestic consumption, it is also being used to run 5hp and 10hp agricultural pumps. Other sources of energy like wind energy and biogas can also be integrated into this system.

The recently developed fully automatic biodiesel plant, which has a capacity of one tonne per day, while running for right hours can produce biodiesel from feedstock such as waste vegetable oil, used cooking oil, animal tallow, etc. This type of system also helps in local employment generation. READ MORE