India's biggest floating solar power plant to be set up at Ramagundam in Telangana

India's biggest floating solar power plant with a capacity of 100 MW will be set up at Ramagundam in Telangana. The project set up at Ramagundam thermal power plant reservoir is expected to be opened in May 2021.

The solar project is commissioned by the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) in the reservoir of its thermal power plant at Ramagundam, Peddapalli district. The project, which is estimated to cost around Rs 423 crore will have 4.5 lakh photovoltaic panels.

The solar panels will cover a 450-acre area of the reservoir and can be expanded in the future. This floating solar power project is expected to give a boost to the share of renewable energy in overall power generation in Telangana. The total installed capacity of renewable energy in Telangana, including solar, stood at 3,944 MW in 2019-20.

Telangana is among a handful of states and Union territories that are on track to meet their renewable energy targets for 2022.

NTPC's efforts to set up floating solar power projects are aimed at reducing its carbon footprints and accelerate its green energy production to 30 per cent of its capacity.

According to C.V. Anand, Executive Director, NTPC Southern Region, this will be the largest floating solar plant in the country in a single location as of now. The energy conglomerate has plans to set up solar projects in the country. The NTPC plans solar power plants of a total capacity of 450 MW in the southern region. Of this, 217 MW plants would be floating on water bodies.

NTPC Is also setting up a 25MW unit at Simhadri power plant in Visakhapatnam and a 92 MW floating unit at Kayamkulam gas plant in Kerala.

The NTPC embarked on setting up large floating solar plants after completing pilot projects of 100 KWH at Kayamkulam in Kerala and 1 MW at Kawas in Gujarat.

The solar power projects are being created in line with the country's commitment to attaining the target of 175 GW of installed renewable energy capacity by 2022 including 100 GM of solar installed capacity. The upcoming floating solar plants in South India are likely to be commissioned in the next few months.

The world's largest solar power plant with 600 MW capacity is being set up on Omkareshwar Dam on Narmada river in Madhya Pradesh. The project costing Rs 3,000 crore is expected to start power generation only by 2022-23.

Electricity will be produced in about 2,000-hectare water area by installing solar panels in the dam. Solar panels will float on the surface of the water in the reservoir.

Under the floating plants, the photovoltaic panels are deployed on the surface of water bodies. They are considered a viable alternative to land-based solar arrays. As per published reports, the setting-up of floating solar units in water bodies and huge reservoirs helps the company in cutting down on the costs. In fact, the floating solar units are cost-effective when compared to the ground-mounted plant. It also saves the organization from facing the challenges of land acquisition that they need to set up the solar power plants on the ground. Reports suggest, five acres of land is required for setting up one MW solar photovoltaic plant on the ground.

As South India has a large number of major reservoirs, NTPC Southern Region plans to focus on floating solar plants.

Other benefits of the floating plants include:

• Water bodies exert a cooling effect which improves the performance of solar photovoltaic panels by 5 to 10 per cent.
• It leads to reduced water evaporation, reduced grid interconnection costs, low algal blooming and improved water quality.