 |
||
|
The National Research Energy Laboratory (NREL) will be calling for bids from PV manufacturers interested in taking part in a 10 kW thin film system project at the Solar Energy Centre of the Indian Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources (MNES) in New Delhi. NREL’s involvement in the $60,000 USD project follows the updating of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between NREL and MNES, signed March 23 by the secretary of MNES, Mr. N.N. Mookerjee, and the under secretary of the US Department of Energy (DOE), Dr. Ernest J. Moniz, during President Clinton’s India visit. It replaces an MOU signed in 1994 that was responsible for the installation of 300 solar home lighting systems, as well as some street lighting and battery charging systems, in the Sundarbans Region in West Bengal. According to MNES, an implementation project is being planned as part of the new MOU, but no details have been worked out yet. »We’re ready to go from our side,« says Jack Stone at NREL’s National Center for Photovoltaics (NCPV) about the thin film project. NREL must wait for India to settle budgetary matters before bids can be opened. Half of the $60,000 price tag would be covered by MNES and the other half by NREL along with the thin film manufacturer chosen for the project. Stone says the single 10 kW installation would make a decent field test for a company looking to test thin films and equipment in India. »We think the US product is superior to anything they can offer over in India right now,« says Stone. He expects the project to be underway by the end of the summer. No decision has been made about whether the system will be grid connected. The MOU also calls for an exchange of technical information, experience, managerial personnel, as well as joint testing of equipment. The amount of training to be conducted at NREL will be determined once the Indian budget has been established. Stone says there will no one to contact concerning the bids until a procurement requisition has been issued. PHOTON International will pass on the information when it becomes available. William
P. Hirshman
|
||
|
||
