Thursday, August 22, 2013: On Wednesday, Rajasthan pipped its neighbouring state Gujarat by laying the foundation stone of the world’s biggest solar farm with 3,000MW generation capacity. Earlier, in the year 2012, Gujarat had boasted of the biggest solar farm with about 2,000MW generation capacity. It seems there is a fierce battle going on in the states in order to set records in the solar sector.
The solar farm in Rajasthan will sport a dedicated zone for carrying out solar research and development along with solar installations for the purpose of pumping water from the Indira Gandhi Canal, in addition to providing power to the grid.
Apart from this, another area of competition among the states is with regard to having large capacity solar units. Soon, Madhya Pradesh is set to launch a 151MW solar plant, which is one MW more compared to the unit in Maharashtra.
Prior to Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra had defeated its arch rival Gujarat, which had earlier informed 130MW solar plant supposed to receive funds by Bill Gates Foundation.
The first state to enjoy double benefits from a solar system i.e. generation of power along with saving water loss from canals is Gujarat. The state had constructed a one MW power plant on Narmada Canal about 40kms from Ahmedabad. This resulted in saving 20 per cent of water loss due to evaporation.
Whereas, West Bengal has set up a floating solar power station at Victoria lake. The station is being developed by Calcutta Institute of Technology. The benefit that will be derived from the station is that the efficiency of solar panels will be increased by almost 16 per cent because water will cool its rear side.
