Monday, August 26, 2013: It seems that the several Indian states are fighting a heavy battle among themselves to prove new records under the solar power schemes. This Wednesday, the foundation for the to-be world’s biggest solar farm with a capacity of 3,000 MW was laid in Rajasthan. In 2012, Gujarat had held this record with a 2,000 MW solar farm installed.
The upcoming solar farm in Rajasthan will have an area of 10,000 MW power generations and will also provide a dedicated zone for further development projects and solar research. There would also be installations from the Indira Gandhi Canal that will be providing power to the grid. The Gujarat project too was established in a similar line of procedures but is of a lesser capacity. The trifle doesn’t end here.
Other states too have caught up with the fetish. Madhya Pradesh is set to launch another 151 MW solar plant. The number is just 1 MW more than a similar unit in Maharashtra. According to a senior official from the MNRE (Ministry of New and Renewable energy, the Madhya Pradesh plant has been built just to beat the project in Maharashtra. Before the state of Madhya Pradesh had decided to enter the competition, Maharashtra had already beaten Gujarat, one of the arch rivals which had previously announced a solar project with a 130 MW capacity and was to be funded by the Bill Gates Foundation.
Gujarat had been among the first of states to benefit from solar power panel installations and saving water wastage from canals. West Bengal too isn’t far behind in the scheme of things and is coming up with a floating solar power station to be installed on Victoria Lake. The panels are currently being developed by the Calcutta Institute of Technology.
