Monday, September 15, 2014: India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, is inclined towards using the huge potential of the country for solar power towards the self-sustaining formula for sustained growth. It has introduced a scheme called, ‘Ultra Mega Solar’.
Under the scheme, the government plans to establish 25 solar parks in the next five years by imparting its focus over economies of scale. It would involve development of 20 GW of solar photovoltaic systems. Every solar power would have proper space for installation between 500 megawatts and 1 GW of capacity.
Huge area of India is under high solar energy which can be used in a beneficial way. The ‘solar park’ signifies a concentrated zone for developing solar projects where an ample infrastructure is available allowing better usage of resource.
In August, MNRE drafted the details about Ultra Mega Solar scheme to local governments that highlighted the basic mechanics of the strategy. It mentioned that Solar power projects can be established anywhere in the country, but if the solar power projects are made to be spread over a bigger area than it would result to higher project cost per MW and higher transmission losses.
Perhaps individual projects of smaller capacity incur significant expenses in site development, drawing separate transmission lines to nearest substation, procuring water and in creation of other necessary infrastructure. Even it takes a long time for project developers to arrange land and complete various permissions formalities, etc. which thereafter delays the entire project. To visualise ‘Ultra Mega Solar’ scheme, MNRE has established a solar park models in Gujarat, ‘Charanka Solar Park’ and Rajasthan, ‘Bhadla Solar Park’.
MNRE states, the Charanka Solar Park has capacity of 590 MW, out of which 224 MW has already been commissioned by 20 developers. MNRE will identify the land in each state, that can be proposed for solar parks.
