Shireesh B Kedare

Biography

Dr. Shireesh Kedare is a Professor at IIT Bombay since 2013. His focus is on the development of solar thermal power with storage working for 24 h/d suitable for Indian conditions. He has developed a molten salt loop facility for testing the performance of thermocline storage, a test set up for high temperature receiver and has conceptualized and designed innovative tracking for heliostats and an innovative receiver for central tower. He is also involved in the development of a 3.5 kWe Free-Piston Stirling Engine (FPSE) and the solar concentrator receiver suitable for it as well as in the development of a mini solar plant through a DST project spearheaded by a team from BARC. Dr. Kedare is associated with Centre for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas (CTARA), IIT Bombay and is working on rural energy and other technologies. He is presently focussing on the development and participative dissemination of affordable implements for performance improvement of the traditional wood fired cook-stoves, drinking water filters for rural areas, solar dryers for agricultural produce and participative transition process to organic farming in the Yavatmal district of Maharashtra. He is also involved in enabling system integrated context specific participative development by enabling voluntary agencies in rural areas through an NGO “Su-Lok Chetana Pratishthan”. Dr. Kedare has strived to spread awareness about research and technology development in solar thermal field in industry and academia with a focus on the multi-disciplinary engineering excellence required for product development. He is also involved in voluntary efforts for creating energy awareness amongst school and college students. Since 2001, Dr. Kedare worked simultaneously as an adjunct faculty in Department of Energy Science and Engineering, IIT Bombay and as Director (R and D), Clique Developments Ltd. (CDL).His role was pivotal in the research, development, design, fabrication, installation and performance testing of ‘Arun’ solar Fresnel concentrating paraboloid reflector with cavity receiver at its focus. Five versions of Arun – 10 m2 test unit at Kolhapur (1998), 28 m2test unit at Pune (2001-2004), and the commercial versionsArun160 (2004-2007), Arun100 (2012-2013) and Arun30 (2013) – were developed and deployed. He has also worked on the integration of solar concentrator technology for a variety of industrial as well as commercial applications using steam, pressurized water or thermic fluid as the medium. He has helped the team of engineers from CDL to install 19 units of Arun160, 4 units of Arun100 and 4 units of Arun30 in 16 Indian industries, totalling to 3,754m2 of collector area saving about 1750 kg of fuel oil per day for about 250 days a year. This technology is globally recognized and is expected to save emissions of about 28 million tons of CO2 in its lifetime. Dr. Kedare is also working on developing the tests and standards for solar concentrators. Dr. Kedare was a part of the team working at IIT Bombay on the development of a megawatt scale solar thermal power plant with hybrid solar field consisting of parabolic trough collectors (PTC) and linear Fresnel reflector collectors (LFR) using two different thermal media and including a short time thermal storage system. His focus was on the solar collector field design, technology selection and implementation, and the development of PFDs and PIDs along with control philosophy. He was also involved in the development of 1.5 kWe beta-type kinematic Stirling engine for solar receivers. Dr. Kedare has tried to minimize his daily carbon foot print and be net CO2 absorber. He uses public transport for his daily commuting to work and uses bicycle for transport in the vicinity. He stresses upon the implementation of various energy saving measures in daily life, cautious use of electricity as well as recycling bio-waste. The estimated daily CO2 emissions caused by him and his family are about 30 kg which are less than his credit of the CO2 emissions of about 40 kg saved by the daily oil savings resulting from ARUN solar technology pioneered by him and his colleagues. His credit is assumed to be 1% of total emissions saved by ARUN technology.

Research Interest

Concentrating Solar Collectors: optics, receivers, tracking system, controls, field optimization, testing Industrial process heat applications of solar concentrators, solar cooling and hybrid systems Solar thermal power, thermal energy storage, cavity receivers and receivers for solar Stirling Engines Wind and water machines: Large / small propeller / Savonious / Darrius machines Rural application technologies: Assessing needs, designing technology alternatives and disseminating devices in the fields of traditional cooking, drinking water, organic farming as well as solar drying of food and agricultural produce Context specific participative development by enabling voluntary agencies in rural areas