Centre sets up new solar thermal components testing facility at Hyderabad

Source: PIB 

 What is the News?

The Ministry of Science and Technology has announced the setting up of a Concentrated Solar Thermal(CST) Testing Facility at Hyderabad.

About Concentrated Solar Thermal(CST) Testing Facility:

• The CST Testing facility has been set up by the International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials(ARCI).
• Purpose: The facility will help the solar industry to test the capability and performance of solar thermal components like solar receiver tubes, heat transfer fluids, and concentrating mirrors.
• The facility will validate the components by parallelly comparing the performance (heat gain and heat loss properties) of them with varying operating parameters (e.g. flow rates of Heat Transfer Fluids(HTFs), operating temperature, pressures, etc.).

About ARCI:

• International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials(ARCI) was established in 1997.
• Ministry: It is an Autonomous Research and Development Centre of the Department of Science and Technology(DST).
• Mandate: ARCI’s mandate is
  • Development of High-Performance Materials and Processes for Niche Markets
  • Demonstration of Technologies at Prototype/pilot scale
  • Transfer of Technology to Indian Industry.