Techno-Economic Sizing of Renewable Energy Resources for Energy Improvements in Jaggery Making Process

Electricity is one of the major infrastructures for economical development of any country. Since last 3–4 years, India is recognized as the top five fastest growing country in the world with an average annual growth rate of 7.3% to 7.6%. Agriculture based small-scale businesses play vital role in economic development of India. Conventional jaggery making is one of the oldest small-scale business enterprises, which promotes local job employment and entrepreneurship opportunities in rural India. Though more than 70 % of worldwide jaggery demand is met by India by exporting 3 Lakh MT of jaggery, worth of Rs. 1500 crores in F. Y 2017-18, almost all jaggery units are located in remote places in rural India. Because of their remote geographical position, grid electricity supply of such conventional jaggery units is characterized by frequent power outages with poor quality of supply. Thus, power quality issues are hampering the productivity and quality of final product of this sector. However, India is located in the equatorial sun belt of the earth, which receives an average solar radiation in the range of 4-7 Kwh/m2/day for 300 clear sunny days in a year in most parts of the country. Therefore, solar energy can be a possible alternative that can provide uninterrupted power supply to farmers and people involved in such agriculture based business enterprises. In this research, several jaggery-manufacturing units in various parts of the country are surveyed to understand ground reality of problems faced by farmers and local people. Thereafter one of the jaggery units located at Chakan, near Pune metropolitan city, India is selected to provide technology up gradation and possible reduction in green house gas (GHG) emission using solar PV system. This research paper also presents, PVsyst simulation tool for design and Performance assessment of proposed solar power plants.