A large-scale solar power park in southern India is slowly reaching its planned capacity of 1 gigawatts as more and more developers commission their projects.
The Kurnool solar power park owned by NTPC Limited, India’s largest power generating company, has reached an installed capacity of 450 megawatts following operationalisation of two projects. Two more projects and the solar park will reach the milestone of 1 gigawatts to become one of, if not the largest, solar power park in the world.
SB Energy, a joint venture company of Softbank, Foxconn Technology and Bharti Enterprises, had commissioned a 350 megawatt (AC) project in late March 2017 while Azure Power recently commissioned 100 megawatt (AC) project in early June 2017. All projects commissioned at the solar power park will supply electricity to state-owned utilities of Andhra Pradesh where the park is located.
Both, Azure Power and SB Energy secured rights to develop their projects under the ‘open’ category which means that they were free to use Indian or imported solar panels. While the origin of panels used by Azure Power is unknown, SB Energy used more than 700,000 panels manufactured by China-based Trina Solar.
The other two developers – Greenko Energy and Adani Green Energy – won their projects under the Domestic Content Requirement (DCR) category and are obligated to use Indian-made panels. Greenko is developing a 500 megawatts (AC) project at the park which, once commissioned, will likely become the second largest solar power project developed by a single developer at a single site in India.
Adani Green Energy, which currently operates the largest solar power project in India, will commissioned 50 megawatts (AC) project at the Kurnool solar power park.