Techno-Economic Assessment of a Low-Temperature Solar Organic Rankine Cycle System

For the last couple of years, photovoltaics (PV) has been the preferred choice of technology for harnessing solar energy against Concentrated Solar Power (CSP). The major issue bogging down CSP is that it is not economical as compared to PV. Emerging technologies such as s-CO2 and Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) could be the saviour for CSP going forward. To understand the techno-economics of a solar-ORC system, CSTEP and Indian Institute of Science (IISc), under SERIIUS project, worked together in assessing a low-temperature solar ORC system for off-grid applications. Such a system is assessed for an Indian scenario so that we can thoroughly understand the challenges for economic viability of such as system.