CSP World

The cost for building a concentrated soalr thermal power plant in India could have dropped a 35% since 2010, according to Arevas estimates reported by Bloomberg.

The fall in the cost would have been driven mainly thanks to a boost in local manufacturing. Siddhartha Ghoshal, managing director of Areva’s local solar unit has told in a conference in New Delhi that when I look at future projects, there is a 30 to 35 percent reduction in how much it would cost to build a similar project". “That’s mainly due to the localization of materials", he added.

The 100 MW CSP plant being built in Rajasthan by Reliance Power with Areva's proprietary technology 'Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector' has a cost of $336 million. Thus, a new simalr plant to be built now could cost about $218 million.

The plants awarded at the first phase of the National Solar Mission (JNNSM) have suffered delays or higher costs than estimated, mainly due to the dependency of foreign suppliers, as previously reported by CSP World here .The 50 MW parabolic trough plant recently commissioned by Godawari Green Energy, the first to come on-line, reported here, had to pay a roughly 20% more than expected due to a relay on foreign suppliers in order to -almost- meet the deadline set by May this year.

Areva has reportedly sourced about 60% of the equipment for Reliance's plant in India. A key component, the mirrors, has to be delivered from foreign supplier, if an Indian provider for mirror would have been available, the local components would have accounted for 90%.

The Reliance's plant is expected to be commissioned later this year. It's the largest Fresnel type CSP plant in the world. Reliance's plant has been financed with a $103 million loan from the Asian Depeloment Bank, as we reported in CSP World here, and with a $80 million loan from US' Ex-Im Bank, as we reported here. It's worthin note that Ex-Im Bank approved the loan because Areva Solar, France's Areva subsidiary, is headquartered in the US.