Shapoorji Pallonji has bagged the country’s first floating solar project to set up the first block of 50 MW at Rihand dam in Uttar Pradesh
Solar project developer, Shapoorji Pallonji Group has won Solar Energy Corporation of India’s (SECI) bid to develop 50 MW of the country’s first large-scale floating project in Uttar Pradesh.
SECI floating project
SECI’s first block of the 150 MW floating solar project is set to come up at the Rihand Dam in Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh and with this win, Shapoorji Pallonji has entered in a 25-year power sale agreement with the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL). SECI had auctioned for the project in March 2018 and fixed the upper tariff ceiling at Rs. 3.29/kWh.
The remaining 100 MW, reportedly, will be auctioned shortly in two 50 MW blocks. “We had considered bringing out such a tender two years earlier, but our initial inquiries showed tariffs would have been in the range of Rs 7-8 per unit, and so we decided not to go ahead,” a SECI official was quoted by ET.
Floating solar project
Vinay Rustagi, Managing Director at solar consultancy Bridge To India views that the model of floating solar project is a well-established one. He said that the price of the Rihand floating solar project was 10 per cent higher than the ground-mounted ones and it was in line with the expectations. He also highlighted the challenge factor in setting up the project in the given deadline of 13 months.
Rihand Dam is also called Govind Ballabh Pant Sagar and it is the country’s largest reservoir by volume and largest artificial lake, located on the Rihand River. Its catchment area is spread across Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
Floating solar project is new in India’s scenario, yet it is believed that it will bring down the issues in acquiring land to set up projects otherwise. The new project will be using the same transmission facilities as the hydropower station of the Rihand dam.
