After establishing world’s one of the biggest solar power park of 750MW in Rewa— the government is now reportedly planning to set up a 1,000MW floating solar park at Indira Sagar Dam in Khandwa, MP.
Principal secretary, new and renewable energy, Manu Shrivastav speaking to TOI said “We have done preliminary studies and now World Bank is preparing feasibility reports. The state government is ready to procure 200MW power from the project and we are in talks with other procurers, too. If everything goes well, work should start in 7-8 months.”
The cost of this mega floating solar park is expected to be around Rs 5,000 crores, at Rs 5 crore per MW.
Indira Sagar Dam has a surface area of 26,710 hectare, which can accommodate a solar power park of up to 13,000MW.
An official speaking to the publication said “There are several issues connected with this project. Land requirement is of biggest concern in case of solar parks, but projects like this solve that problem. There is a minor increase in investment (for a floating solar park), but since land is not required it is minimized.”
Floating solar systems generate more power than land-based ones.
There is only one other floating power project in India — a 100MW one, run by NTPC in Andhra Pradesh. There is another 150MW plant in the pipeline at Rihand Dam, Uttar Pradesh.