Charanka solar park with an aggregated operational capacity of 500 MW is Asia’s first and the largest solar park
Even though Gujarat is a power surplus state, it is investing
huge amount of money in solar energy. Inaugurating the Charanka solar
park which had an aggregated operational capacity of 500 MW last month,
the state’s chief minister Narendra Modi dedicated it to the nation
calling it Gujarat’s contribution to the war against global warming and
climate change.
“For ages we have been worshiping Sun god. It’s time to get his
blessings. And, Gujarat will show how,” Narendra Modi told an applauding
crowd of 5000 in Charanka in Patan district. The chief minister was not
invoking gods to impress upon the audience.
He was talking about the amalgamation of science and technology with
business. The context was the inauguration of the 500 MW solar park,
Asia’s first and the largest on April 24.
The park has an aggregated operational capacity of 500 MW of solar power
projects commissioned on a single location with 21 solar project
developers setting up their projects.
While Gujarat’s contribution to the generation of solar energy may look
minuscule compared to the target of 20,000 MW set in the national solar
mission by 2020, it will appear huge seen in the context of all India
figure of 900 MW installation capacity.
“We have set our eyes on achieving the target of 10,000 MW soon,” Modi
said to the cheering audience. Although it will take a while before the
CM’s ambitious target becomes a reality, Gujarat has certainly raced
ahead of other states in getting huge investment in the solar energy
generation.
“The solar installations in Gujarat have attracted an investment of Rs
9,000 crore,” said DJ Pandian, principle secretary, energy, Gujarat
government.
Gujarat’s achievement in attracting investment in solar energy sector is
significant keeping in mind the energy requirements of the country.
According to ministry of power’s latest estimates India has an installed
capacity of 199.87GW, which though is world’s fifth largest, is short
by 21000 MW. And, with coal which accounts for 55 percent of India’s
installed electricity capacity, being a fast depleting resource, it is
important that the country looked for other source of power.
India has a rich solar energy resource. The country receives 200 MW/km
square (megawatt per kilometre square) of average intensity of solar
radiation. With a geographical area of 3.287 million km square, this
amounts to 657.4 million MW.
Although Gujarat is a power surplus state, it announced the solar power
Policy in January 2009. Under the policy, the Gujarat Electricity
Regulatory Commission (GERC) agreed for an attractive feed-in tariff of
Rs 15/unit (the GERC will buy power at this rate from the developers)
for the first 12 years and Rs 5/unit for the subsequent 13 years.
Also, since huge area of land is required for solar projects (approx. 5
acres/MW), the government introduced the concept of solar parks.
The Charanka solar park
The foundation stone for the solar Park was laid at Charanka on
December 30, 2010. Gujarat Power Corporation Limited (GPCL), the nodal
agency for implementation of the Solar Park, invested Rs 300 crore into
the Solar Park infrastructure, while Gujarat Energy Transmission
Corporation Limited (GETCO) invested Rs 650 crore into the smart
evacuation and transmission network. The Asian Development Bank (ADB)
provided a loan of Rs 500 crore for smart transmission network
development to GETCO.
In a record one-year time the park was functional by January 2012.
“The park offers the advantage of access to government waste lands, high
solar radiations, utilisation of common infrastructure to host multiple
solar power projects and extending industry and employment to the
remote location of Gujarat,” said Pandian, principle secretary, energy.
The park has helped the local economy too. It has already provided
employment to 30,000 skilled and unskilled workers. The operation and
maintenance activity for the solar plants promises to provide steady
employment to 1,500 personnel for the next 25 years. Further, the solar
power plants will generate 30 lakh units of clean energy per day, which
can provide electricity to 10 lakh households. Above all, these solar
power plants will save CO2 emissions at the rate of 10 lakh tonnes per
year.
“India has huge potential in the solar energy sector, and Gujarat
government’s effort for encouraging investment is the step in the right
direction,” said Sunil Gupta, head, clean energy, Standard Chartered
Bank.
“The Gujarat government has exploited the economy of scale by setting up
this huge solar park and bringing together 21 solar power developers.
The prices of solar energy will certainly fall down,” said V Saibaba,
CEO, Lanco Solar.
Rooftop solar installations
While the concept of solar park has taken off and huge
investments are pouring in, the Gujarat government is not resting on its
laurels. “We will also simultaneously promote solar rooftop
installations,” said Pandian.
Gandhinagar, the state capital, is being developed as a model solar
city, the first-of-its-kind in the country. Gandhinagar Solar City
Project has multiple installations of solar rooftop systems ranging from
1 kilowatt (kW) to 150 kW at more than 150 locations, aggregating to a
capacity of 1.39 MW. These systems cover a total area of two hectares on
roofs, which amounts to approximately 2% of the total roof space in the
capital city. Further, these systems contribute to approximately 1% of
the total energy consumption of the city. Now, the government has
floated a 5 MW Gandhinagar (Solar) Photovoltaic Rooftop Programme
through public-private partnership (PPP). This is the largest solar
rooftop programme in India, and is structured with a vision to
mainstream the practice of solar rooftop systems in the country.
Similar solar rooftop programmes will be extended to more cities like
Mehsana, Bhavnagar, Rajkot, Surat and Vadodara in the near future.
Eventually, the solar rooftop programme will open up to one and all in
Gujarat through a sustainable policy that will be launched in the near
future. “Everyone in Gujarat will be generating power on his rooftop in
the near future,” Pandian said.
“Mainstreaming the solar rooftop practice will open up floodgates to a
whole new industry in the state with a tremendous potential for
employment. It is a vision of the state that each citizen becomes
self-sufficient in terms of energy that is also clean,” he added.
Canal Solar Power
Gujarat has also pioneered canal-based solar power project. A 1
MW pilot project is already commissioned on Narmada branch canal near
Chandrasan village of Mehsana district’s Kadi taluka.
This project was inaugurated on April 24. It is developed by Gujarat
State Electricity Corporation Limited (GSECL) with support from Sardar
Sarovar Narmada Nigam Limited (SSNNL). This 1 MW pilot is installed on a
750-metre stretch of the canal and will generate 1.6 million units of
clean electricity per year, as well as prevent evaporation of 90 lakh
litres of water per year from the canal. Hence, the canal solar concept
tackles two of our modern day challenges: energy security and water
security.
Today, Gujarat has about 458 kilometres of open main canal, while the
total canal length, including sub-branches is about 19,000 kilometres;
the final aim of SSNNL is to construct a total of 85,000 kilometres of
canal network.
Assuming a utilisation of only 10% of the existing canal network of
19,000 kilometres, it is estimated that 2,200 MW of solar power
generating capacity can be installed.
This implies that 11,000 acres of land, about 2,000 crore litres of water per year can be potentially conserved.
"Gujarat is the first state not only in India but also in Asia to set up a dedicated department for climate change,” Modi said.
Apart from setting up a dedicated department for climate change, the
government of Gujarat is spending a huge amount on renewable energy
(more than Rs 2,000 crore per year), which the chief minister said was
its contribution in the “war against global warming and climate change.”
Monday, October 22, 2012
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment