About National Test Center for Testing Solar Thermal Gadgets
The “Regional Test Center cum Technology Back-up Unit for Solar Thermal Devices” (abbreviated as RTC), Centre for Energy Studies (Former School of Energy Studies),
Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) has been providing services in testing for solar thermal devices since 1992.
It has been duly accredited by National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) for certification of Flat Plate Collector (FPC) solar water heater,
Evacuated Tube Collector (ETC) solar water heater and Box Type Solar Cookers.
The CES has established first of a kind test set up in India for testing Evacuated tubes as well as Evacuated Tube solar water heater as per Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) viz.
IS 16543: 2016, IS 16542: 2016, IS-16544:2016 & IS-16368:2015). Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) has state-of-art test centre for testing and certification of
Concentrated Solar Thermal (CST) technologies known as “National Test Facility for Concentrating Solar Thermal Technologies”.
The test centre was developed under the Project of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy’s MNRE- UNDP-GEF project for Concentrated Solar Heat.
The CST test centre is the first of its kind for testing of Concentrated Solar Thermal technologies in Asia Pacific region.
The test setup had been operational since October 2014. Using immobile test facility, CST collectors upto 32 m2 area can be tested.
For bigger systems above 32 m2 of collector area, CES has mobile test setup. The Test Centre has its own weather station.
Following test facilities are available in the test centre
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Test facility for testing of hot water/steam-based CST systems.
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Test facility for testing of thermal oil-based CST systems.
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Mobile test facility for on-site performance evaluation of CST systems.
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Concentrated Solar Thermal component test facility.
The test report provided by the test center contains the performance results of the CST system.
These performance parameters assist the end-users to select suitable technologies for the required applications as well as to evaluate the performance of CST in
actual field condition. The test data also helps the manufacturer to improvise the quality and performance of their system. Till date 32 CST systems along
with the component testing have been tested in the test centre.
Centre for Energy Studies has the unique facility of testing the Evacuated tubes of ETC Water Heater.This facility is known as “National Test Facility for testing Evacuated
Glass Tubes (EGT)”. Presently the Evacuated Tube Collector technology is one of the popular technologies for low temperature applications.
The evacuated glass tubes required for these collectors are mainly imported from China. With the financial support from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE)
Government of India, the Centre for Energy Studies has established test facilities for testing Evacuated Glass Tubes. The suppliers and installers of ETC
collectors from all over India are benefited from this test facility to ensure optimum quality of Tubes.
The test reports are mandatory for getting BIS marking and BEE star Labeling.
Apart from these testing activities, the test centre was actively involved in the development of Indian test standards for testing various types of CST technologies.
The Bureau of Indian Standards has published Indian Standards for testing CST collectors.
Following test standards have been published by BIS for testing CST Collectors
| IS 16648 (Part 1) :2017 |
Concentrated Solar Thermal –
Specification Part 1 Dish Technology |
| IS 16648 (Part 2) :2017 |
Concentrated Solar Thermal –
Specification Part 2 Scheffler Concentrator |
| IS 16648 (Part 3) :2017 |
Concentrated Solar Thermal –
Specification Part 3 Parabolic Trough Concentrator |
| IS 16648 (Part 4) :2017 |
Concentrated Solar Thermal -
Specification Part 4 Non-Imaging Concentrator |
| IS 16648(Part 5):2017 |
Concentrated Solar Thermal -
Specification Part 5 Test Methods |
Number of Solar Thermal Systems tested in the last three years (2020-2022)
| Regional Test Centre Cum Technology Backup Unit for Solar Thermal Devices, CES, SPPU, Pune |
| Sr. No. |
Particulares |
Samples Tested |
| 1 |
ETC System : IS 16544 |
51 |
| 2 |
ETC Tube: IS 16543 |
43 |
| 3 |
ETC Tank: IS 16542 |
49 |
| 4 |
FPC : IS 12933 |
11 |
| 5 |
Thermosyphon Type : IS 16368 |
8 |
| 6 |
CST Systems On site |
32 (Since 2014) |
| 7 |
Parabolic Solar Cooker |
2 |
Workshops and Training Programmes:
Solar thermal technology is currently in its nascent stage in India. For proliferation of these technologies in the market,
industries require trained manpower and system integrators. To create awareness in the industries, RTC conducts several workshops and awareness programs.
For these training programs RTC provides hands-on training to the participants. Through these programs trainees acquire the basic and advanced knowledge
about solar thermal technologies. RTC even conducts training activities in solar Photovoltaic applications. After receiving the training many of the trainees
have started their own solar business. RTC not only trains the personnel in its own campus, several industries are also approaching to impart training in their organization.
RTC has provided consultancy to many private organizations. RTC is providing consultancy in solar thermal applications for industrial process heat requirements,
solar cooking along with solar water heating applications. CST and RTC labs are also involved in many research projects.
RTC has published many articles in international journals as well as filed patents. CST and RTC lab has received “Best Regional Test center” award from MNRE in the year of 2013.
