India shows it's serious about solar with giant power plant
By
Rina Chandran
CHENNAI, India, Jan 26 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - It took 8,500 men working two shifts every day for six months - and three shifts for two months - to finish, ahead of schedule, the Adani Group's giant solar power plant in southern India.
The vast, 10 sq km project in Ramanathapuram, in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, is the world's largest solar power station in a single location, according to the company.
It has the capacity to power 150,000 homes - and it is one sign of how serious India is becoming about meeting its renewable energy targets.
Considering the delays that commonly bog down infrastructure projects in India, the speed at which the 648 megawatt project was completed demonstrates the country's commitment to renewables, said an analyst.
"The government is very clear about its solar plan, and large installations are key to this plan," said Aruna Kumarankandath of the Centre for Science and Environment in Delhi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi "is a real evangelist", and has prioritised solar to meet the renewables target, she said.
As a signatory to the Paris Agreement on climate change, India is committed to ensuring that at least 40 percent of its electricity will be generated from non-fossil-fuel sources by 2030.
While coal still provides the lion's share of India's energy, officials forecast the country will meet its Paris Agreement renewable energy commitments three years early - and exceed them by nearly half.
A 10-year blueprint released last month predicts that 57 percent of total electricity capacity will come from non-fossil sources by 2027.
Solar energy is a particular focus. It makes up 16 percent of renewables capacity now, but will contribute 100 gigawatts of the renewable energy capacity target of 175 GW by 2022.
Of that 100 GW target, 60 percent will come from large solar installations. The government is planning 33 solar parks in 21 states, with a capacity of at least 500 megawatts each.
GETTING CHEAPER
India's ambitious targets come at a time when renewable energy is at a turning point in the country, as generating electricity from renewables costs nearly the same as from conventional sources.
The urgency also aims to fill a gap: India is among the world's fastest growing economies, yet one-third of its households have no access to grid power.
The renewables goal will help ensure "uninterrupted supply of quality power to existing consumers and provide electricity access to all unconnected consumers by 2019", according to the blueprint.
The Adani plant, built at a cost of 45.5 billion rupees ($661 million), reflects the government's ambitions. It comprises 2.5 million solar panel modules, 576 inverters and 6,000 km of cables, the company said.
The government grants some subsidies for solar and has raised the investment target for solar energy in the country to $100 billion, with Japan's Softbank and Taiwan's Foxconn among others committing to the sector.
But there are hurdles, with land availability for solar parks a chief concern. Conflicts related to land have stalled industrial and development projects in India, putting billions of dollars of investment at risk, according to a recent report.
"Land is definitely a concern, and there's also the issue of transmission," said Kumarankandath.
"It's all very well to produce all this energy, but do we have transmission lines capable of taking it up? We're also going to need large quantities of water to clean the panels."
Some states are passing new land laws to make acquisitions easier, while the government is also exploring innovative places to install solar panels, including across the tops of irrigation canals.
Meanwhile, the Adani group, India's biggest solar power producer and also its top coal-fired generator, may be unseated before long by China, which is building what it claims will be the biggest solar farm on earth: an 850 MW plant on 27 sq km of land.
($1 = 68.0477 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Rina Chandran @rinachandran, Editing by Laurie Goering. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit news.trust.org to see more stories.)
http://www.reuters.com/article/india-renewables-solar-dUSL5N1F74JN
Budget 2017: FM Jaitley says govt to add 20,000 MW capacity through solar parks
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has drawn a scheme to set up number of solar parks across various states in the country, each with a capacity of above 500 MW
Debapriya Mondal | ETEnergyWorld | February 01, 2017, 13:57 IST
New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said the government would take up the second phase of solar park development in the country to add additional 20,000 Megawatt capacity in the country.
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has drawn a scheme to set up number of solar parks across various states in the country, each with a capacity of above 500 MW.
The scheme proposes to provide financial support by the government to establish solar parks with an aim to facilitate creation of infrastructure necessary for setting up new solar power projects in terms of allocation of land, transmission and evacuation lines, access roads, availability of water and others, in a focused manner.
India plans to have a total renewable energy capacity of 175 Gigawatt by 2022 and in order to achieve that target, the government plans to implement solar parks, solar defence schemes, solar scheme for review of economic developments 167 PSUs, solar photovoltaic (SPV) power plants on canal bank and canal tops, solar pump, solar rooftop, etc.
http://energy.economictimes.indiati...0000-mw-capacity-through-solar-parks/56912243
Indian Company Adani Starts ‘Largest Single Location Greenfield Solar PV Manufacturing Facility’ In India Ahead Of Schedule
08:31 PM (Beijing Time) - 28. November 2016Y TAKEAWAYS
- The Adani Group has announced that it has started production of high efficiency PV modules at its 1 GW fab in India
- The Mundra facility of the company is being developed in three phases; the current Phase-I was achieved ahead of schedule
- The factory will aim to add a 1,000 MW ingots and wafers manufacturing plant and 3,000 MW of support manufacturing facilities in Phase-2
- Technology augmentation of cell and manufacturing capacity are planned to lead to 1,080 MW capacity in Phase-3
The Adani Group of India has begun production of high efficiency PV modules at its facility in Mundra region of Gujarat. It is part of India’s Make In India initiative.
The facility is, what Adani calls, the largest single location greenfield solar PV manufacturing facility in India.
Adani had been planning to operationalize the facility in three phases. A total of 1,000 MW capacity was targeted to come online by December 2016 in Phase-I. This means the company has achieved its target for Phase-I ahead of schedule.
Under Phase-2, it plans to start a 1,000 MW ingots and wafers manufacturing plant and ‘support manufacturing facilities’ equivalent to 3,000 MW that include EVA, back-sheet, glass, junction box and solar cell and string interconnect ribbon. In Phase-3, there will be technology augmentation of cell and manufacturing capacity leading to a capacity of 1,080 MW.
This capacity will add to the country’s existing operational module capacity of 4,307.55 MW and that of solar cell 1,123.05 MW, as on June 30, 2016.
On the renewable energy front, the company was recently in the news for its proposed two solar power plants in Australia (
see Adani Expands Big Time To Australia). It informed the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) that it will be developing a $200 million solar generator in Whyalla of Australia. The project involves a 100 MW solar generation plant with the potential capacity estimated to go up to 150 MW. The company plans to have 1,000 MW of solar power capacity in Australia in the next five years. This project will start construction mid next year and is likely to get completed in the next 12 months.
Adani is one of the most prominent solar power players in the India. In September 2016, it brought online a 648 MW capacity PV plant in Tamil Nadu (
see India’s Largest Solar Power Plant).
http://taiyangnews.info/business/adani-starts-1-gw-module-production/
@Nilgiri