Centre sets up solar thermal components testing facility in Hyderabad

The Union ministry of science & technology on Wednesday said it has set up a concentrated solar thermal (CST) based test rig facility at Hyderabad. The facility can help the solar industry test capability and performance of solar thermal components like solar receiver tubes, heat transfer fluids, and concentrating mirrors.

The facility has been set up by the International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI), an autonomous institute of the Department of Science & Technology (DST), the ministry said in a statement.

The testing facility will validate indigenous components by assessing their performance at varying operating parameters such as flow rates of heat transfer fluids (HTFs), operating temperature and pressure, among others and different DNI (direct normal irradiance) conditions.

It can conduct simultaneous testing of standard and indigenous solar receiver tubes. It also has a thermic fluid-based closed-loop system that can operate in the 50-350°C temperature range.