GUJARAT SCORES APOWER POINT
Unique project harnesses solar power from panels placed on a Narmada canal
An innovative solar power project in Gujarat has started generating 1 MW of power, that is 1.6 million units of electricity per year, enough to meet the domestic power requirement of 16,000 families. The project, mooted six months ago by the state power department, was operationalised on March 28 and will be inaugurated on April 24. In a first, solar panels were placed on a .75 km stretch of a canal of the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam ( SSNN) near Ahmedabad, thus saving land costs as well as preventing water evaporation.
The government is also planning to insert micro turbines into the steel structure of solar panels to produce low-intensity hydropower. The state is already the leading solar power producer in the country. Solar parks in Gujarat have been generating 600 MW since March. This is twice the solar power generated in the rest of the country. One particular plant at Charanka village in north Gujarat produces 214 MW— the largest single park in Asia to do so. This solar energy prevents eight million tonnes of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere; it also represents 9,00,000 tonnes of coal and natural gas saved annually. By 2022, the state plans to produce 10,000 MW of solar energy.
Says D.J. Pandian, state energy secretary, who oversaw the execution of the project, “When Chief Minister Narendra Modi mooted the idea in 2011, many thought it was difficult to execute. But we took the risk and today it is a reality. Solar plants require large tracts of land for installation as well as water for maintenance. This project requires none and also saves money by preventing evaporation of the dam water.” S. Jagadeesan, managing director, SSNN, says the project has greater potential: “Solar power generation is possible on 3,500 km of the Narmada dam’s 7,600-km-long branch canal network.”
The project, implemented in collaboration with US firm Sunedison, cost Rs 17 crore, which is higher than the cost of Rs 10 crore required for a regular solar project. Pandian says this being their first attempt, they ended up spending Rs 5 crore more over the projected cost. He assures further research will bring down the costs and there would be no cost overruns next time. “If the micro turbine experiment succeeds, we might be able to bring it down to a level lower than the cost of a regular solar project,” he says.
“This project is revolutionary. There is also a possibility that the flowing water below will keep the solar panels warm and in the process may end up producing more power than a normal solar project,” says Pashupathy Gopalan, managing director of Sunedison, India. Power from the plant, in which 3,616 solar power panels have been installed, will be fed into the local grid for use by surrounding towns and villages.