Monday, October 07, 2013: Indian government announced its decision to add more renewable energy, such as the 4 gigawatt Sambhar Ultra-Mega Green Solar Power Project late last month. This project will be built in the Rajasthan province near Sambhar lake and will be a part of India’s larger goal to install 10 gigawatts of solar energy by 2017 and 20 gigawatts by 2022.
The first 1 gigawatt phase of the project is expected to be applied through a joint venture (JV) company with equity from BHEL, Solar Energy Corp. of India, Power Grid Corp. of India Ltd., SJVN, SSL and REIL. Depending upon the experience gained during execution of the first phase of project, the remainder capacity would be applied through different models.
The project is possibly the largest single solar project named so far which is expected by the country to serve as a model for future projects. “Being the first project of this scale anywhere in the world, it is expected to set a trend for large scale solar power development in the world,” said a spokesperson from the government.
“We would route a part of the finance through viability gap funding; the rest would be tied through power purchase agreements with power distribution companies,” Kumar added.
As it moves to its next phase, the ministry told that it has recognized large tracks of land for solar development in Rajasthan, Kargil and Ladakh. As per the government, the key challenge was initiating a transmission line in the areas of Kargil and Ladakh so that power could be expatriated to the other parts of the country.
