The drive for deployment of solar in India has gained further momentum as Ministry of Shipping has recently announced that it is planning to install 82.64 MW of utility-scale solar power plants at country’s 12 major ports.
The funds required for the development of solar plants will be arranged by the ports from their own resources with no contribution from the government as stated by Minister of State for Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan in a written reply to the Parliament.
This announcement is in line with the Indian government’s Green Port initiative launched earlier this year which aims for ‘cleaner and greener’ airports by use of renewable energy technology. The initiative would also offset cost of purchasing power from the grid and would help to meet the Renewable Energy Purchase Obligation (RPO), set by the government, mandating a certain percentage of renewables into the total energy mix.
Indian ports mainly Vizag, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and New Mangalore together already have set up capacity of 6.84 MW and further 16 MW capacity in pipeline expected for commissioning by March next year.
The Indian government is also planning to push solar power generation in a big way. The Ministry of Civil Aviation recently announced that as many as 143 airports across India are planning to set up a cumulative solar power capacity of 148 MW.
Several ports across the world have solar photovoltaic installations. Recently, Jurong Port in Singapore, in collaboration with Sunseap Leasing, has completed installation of 9.5MW of solar capacity on its warehouse rooftop, making it the largest port-based solar facility in the world.
Image Credit: Sureshiras | CC-BY-SA 3.0
