Kurnool Solar Park to be ready by end of May

Kurnool: The world's largest solar power park -- the Kurnool Ultra Mega Solar Park -- with an installed capacity of 1000 MW will be ready by end of May near Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh. "Already, 900 MW capacity has been commissioned while the balance 100 MW will be commissioned by May end," AP principal secretary (energy and infrastructure) Ajay Jain told reporters during a field visit here today.

"Right now, we are generating 1867.23 MW of solar power, which is the highest in the country. Rajasthan is second with 1812 MW capacity, followed by Telangana (1287 MW) and Gujarat (1250 MW). Our target is to produce 10,000 MW of solar power by the year 2022," Jain said. Prior to the commissioning of the Kurnool Solar Park, the Kamuthi plant in Tamil Nadu had the largest installed solar capacity of 648 MW and Topaz Solar Farm in California 550 MW. The Kurnool Park has come up on an area of 5,811 acres at total cost of one billion USD with Greenko (500 MW), Soft Bank Energy (350 MW), Azure Power (100 MW) and Prayatna Developers (Adani group) (50 MW) as the joint developers. The park will produce 2,600 million units of power per annum, according to Jain.

The Government of India has granted Rs 200 crore for the project, he added. AP, the principal secretary said, now produced 6052 MW of power from non-conventional sources, including 3600 MW from wind. "We are ranked fifth in the country in wind power generation and plan to upgrade the capacity to 8000 MW by 2022. AP will be contributing 10 per cent of wind and solar energy out of the Centre's target of 175 GW by 2022," Jain said. AP Solar Power Corporation, managing director, G Adiseshu, Southern Power Distribution Company Chairman H Y Dora and other top officials were present.