•The medium scale greenhouse solar dryer allows local industries to dry handmade papers at a faster rate.•Energy and economic analyses have been carried out to ascertain the feasibility of the proposed system.•Drying behavior of handmade papers has been evaluated with the help of ten mathematical models.•The developed GHSD's experimental results are promising and scaled up version of such system can be installed in industries. In the presented experimental study, a medium-sized industrial greenhouse solar dryer (MSGSD) of floor area 1.82 x 1.52 m2 was developed using low-cost, locally available materials and tested in the winter season (November- December 2022) for eco-friendly handmade paper drying. The handmade papers having initial moisture content of 60 % (w.b.) were dried to a moisture content of 8–10 % (w.b.), and time taken to dry these papers varied from 3 to 8.5 h depending upon the paper type (off-white or coloured), paper thickness (100–200 GSM) and number of papers (75–150) dried inside the dryer. However, drying in the open sun and shade took 4 to 10 h and 19 to 29 h, respectively, to achieve a moisture content of 8–10 % (w. b.). The instantaneous thermal loss efficiency factor of the developed dryer was calculated for forced and natural convection modes of operation and found to be in the range of 13.1 % − 23.5 %. Ten theoretical models were investigated for characterizing the drying process, out of which the Midilli-Kucuk model was observed to be the best fit with experimental data. The economic analysis revealed a payback period of 0.61 years.