Tuesday, November 25, 2014: The government’s ambitious plan of establishing 25 solar parks has started taking some shape with the identification of 12 potential locations in various states by Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) for setting up such power plants.
The scheme foresees the establishment of 25 solar parks within next five years across the country with the total capacity of around 20,000 MW, with every park housing the capacity from 500-1000MW. As per the government-provided stats, the currently installed solar capacity has touched 3000MW in the country and the government intends to increase it to 100,000 MW by 2022.
MNRE Joint Secretary Tarun Kapoor told PTI, “We have identified 12 locations so far and are in the process of finalising the draft proposal for the same.” He further added that they will soon forward the draft to the cabinet for approval, after which the bidding process will commence.
The locations are identified in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Odisha and Punjab. Kapoor has also expressed his willingness to add Mizoram to the list as well.
He said that Andhra Pradesh will have a 2500 MW park, Telangana a 1000 MW park, whereas MP may have two parks of 750 mw each and Karnataka with 750 mw park. Rajasthan has proposed land to set up projects as big as 4000-5000 MW and Odisha and Punjab will have 3,000 MW parks, each. Gujarat and Rajasthan were cited as models for the proposed solar parks.
The solar parks would be established in collaboration with state governments and Solar Energy Corporation of India would serve as the implementation agency on behalf of the Centre. The government has set aside the investment of Rs 10,000 million for the development of ultra large solar projects and parks, for this fiscal.
