Andhra Pradesh is now expected to house solar parks with a total capacity of 4,000 MW, which is the highest in the country, with an investment of Rs 225.5 crore being sanctioned by the government.
India has been advocating the usage of solar energy and under the Centre’s scheme for development of solar parks, presently 33 solar parks have been commissioned in various states.
According to a government statement, “approvals have been accorded to 33 solar parks with an aggregate capacity of 20,000 MW to be set up in 21 states. Under this scheme, it is proposed to set up at least 25 solar parks and ultra mega solar power projects targeting over 20,000 MW of solar power installed capacity within a span of five years starting from 2014-15.”
Selection of solar parks is a key criteria that the government has to look into because to have a solar park one needs to have some prerequisites, like how much sucnlight that area recieves, resource potentialinfrastructure availability, proximity of nearest grid. All these criterias are a must to build a solar park.
The parks in Andhra Pradesh are to be developed by AP Solar Power Corporation, a joint venture between Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), Andhra Pradesh Power Generation Corporation, and New and Renewable Energy Development Corporation of Andhra Pradesh.
By Atanu Kumar Das
