The growing emphasis on solar energy utilisation to achieve energy security as well as to combat the menace of climate change and global warming has resulted in the formulation of one of the world’s most ambitious solar missions in India. While the larger focus of the Mission is on grid-connected projects geared towards electricity generation, there are great opportunities to deploy solar energy technologies for various off-grid industrial applications as well. This demands the initiation of studies to identify suitable applications for solar energy technologies and estimate their replication potential across industrial sectors. One such joint initiative of the Government of India (GoI) and GIZ aims to identify promising sectors for the commercialisation of solar energy among industrial sectors in the country. The objective of this study is to identify opportunities that are commercially viable, have potential for replication and can also
contribute to India’s National Solar Mission target of 15 million m of solar thermal collector area by 2017, and 20 million m by 2020.