India’s federal government recently gave the go-ahead for development of the country’s largest solar power park in the state of Gujarat.
TOI recently reported that the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) had approved the establishment of the 5-gigawatt Dholera solar power park. The project will be largest solar power park in the country and the first in Gujarat after the Charanka solar park that had been established under the state policy.
Approval from MNRE came just days after Gujarat Chief Minister announced that his government would set up the solar park. “The (government) Of Gujarat is happy to approve the establishment of India’s largest Solar Park in Dholera Special Investment Region (DSIR). The park would be spread across 11,000 hectares area and would attract investment worth Rs 25,000 crore ($3.70 billion). The first tender for the solar park is expected to be floated next month.
The decision to set up this new solar park comes nearly a decade after Gujarat started working on India’s first solar power park at Charanka. Today, Charanka hosts a large portion of Gujarat’s 1.2-gigawatt operational solar power capacity. What prompted the Gujarat government to establish a solar power park of this size after a gap of so many years? We asked an experienced professional in the Indian solar market.
Apart from the Dholera solar park, Gujarat is also working on two more solar parks with a combined installed capacity of 1,200 megawatts. Dholera is likely part of the revamped solar park policy announced by the Indian government, wherein the planned capacity addition was increased from 20 gigawatts to 40 gigawatts.
