India’s largest floating solar plant commissioned

Power minister M M Mani on Monday commissioned India’s largest floating solar power plant on the Banasura Sagar reservoir at Padinjarethara in Wayanad, Kerala.

The floating solar power plant that floats on the surface of the water has a capacity of 500 kilowatts. This is the country’s largest floating solar plant.

The solar plant is constructed using ferrocement technology and consists of 1938 solar panels with 260-watt capacity, a 500 KVA transformer, and 17 inverters.

The unique feature of this plant is the anchoring mechanism used by the overwhelming technology to maintain the plant with the alteration of the water level.

Constructed by Thiruvananthapuram-based Ad tech Systems, the plant will generate seven lakh units per year. The total cost of the project is Rs. 9.25 crore.

The project has used high- efficiency solar panels and a floating substation have been set up on the reservoir itself to convert the output into 11kV, considering economic and safety aspects.