Solar Energy Potential of the State of Rajasthan in India

Rajasthan is the largest state of India with a population of 74.88 million and area of 342,239 km
²
. Rajasthan state captures solar radiation of 6-7 kWh/m
²
/day with approximately 300 sunny days per year (27.0238° N, 74.2179° E). The total installed capacity of Renewable energy in India is 71 GW as on June 2018, where 23.02 GW power is installed capacity of SPV plants including rooftop systems. This paper discusses about the theoretical analysis of the potential of Rajasthan state in energy production from solar energy using the SPV system considering 33 locations which are headquarters of the each of the districts of Rajasthan. Here results are obtained using three software namely: PV syst, System Advisory Module (SAM), RET Screen, and analysis s of these results is done for all the 33 locations. By selecting one location using each of the above software assuming 1 MW SPV power plant power generated and supplied to the grid is calculated. Apart from this, Performance ratio and cumulative utilization factor are also calculated. The calculations are repeated for all the 33 locations. Calculations have also been performed assuming 1 % area of the state as available land for installation of SPV power plants and estimated the power generated. Similar calculations have been done by assuming available land for the establishment of SPV plant as 2%, 3%, 4%, 5% of the total land area of the state of Rajasthan.