Solar Industrial Process Heat in Indian Automobile Industry

Indian Automotive industry is under considerable strain to make their products more environmentally sound. Not only the automobile themselves, but also the whole production process has to become more sustainable to Achieve India's pledge to stop climate change at world forum. The Automobile industry is one of the major industries in India which have huge energy requirements in the form of both thermal and electrical energy. Manufacturing of automobiles and auto components involves many steps such as casting, forging, painting and electroplating etc that require heat or steam. Thermal energy in form of heat or steam accounts for around 70% of all automobile industry's total energy consumption and while solar collectors can provide a large share of this industrial process heat, the collector technology used depends upon a great deal on the temperatures involved. The use of an appropriate solar thermal technology can have a positive impact on the energy and environmental scenario of Automobile industry at a large. There are various solar thermal technologies including CST technologies that are available for Automobile industries. Flat plate collectors and evacuated tube collectors can be used with a reasonable level of efficiency at temperatures of up to around 130°C but for temperatures higher than this, concentrating collector systems such as Fresnel-Collectors, parabolic dishes and ParabolicTrough-Collectors can give greater efficiency.