India's biggest floating solar power plant project et up by the energy conglomerate National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) is expected to become operational in at Ramagundam, Telangana next month. The plant with a capacity of 100 megawatt is spread over 450 acres and will have 4.5 lakh photovoltaic panels that can be expanded in the future.
The company officials say they opted for solar floating plants due to its enormous advantages . Given that five acres of land is required for setting up one MW solar photo-voltaic plant on ground, the authorities are going for floating method. In Addendum, floating plants improves the performance of solar photovoltaic panels by 5 to 10 per cent since the water bodies exert more cooling effect. The other benefits include reduced water evaporation, reduced grid interconnection costs, low algal blooming and improved water quality.
The floating solar power project at Ramagundam is expected to give boost to the share of renewable energy in overall power generation in Telangana. The total installed capacity of renewable energy, including solar, in Telangana stood at 3,944 MW in 2019-20. Telangana is among a small bunch of States and Union territories who are on track to meet their renewable energy targets for 2022.
Interestingly, the world's largest floating 600 MW solar energy project is also coming up in India. The project to be constructed at Omkareshwar dam on the Narmada river in Khandwa district, Madhya Pradesh, is likely to begin power generation by 2022-23.