Madhya Pradesh to host ‘world’s biggest floating PV plant’ within two years

The 2,000ha installation, which will surpass in scale a 150 MW plant in China’s Anhui province, will reportedly require a INR3,000 crore investment.

January 7, 2021 Uma Gupta

Maharashtra, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh are the top three states in terms of Indian floating PV potential, according to a study by The Energy and Resources Institute.

Thomas Roche, Flickr

The Indian state of Madhya Pradesh will host a 600 MW floating solar plant, in Khandwa district. The array, planned for the reservoir formed by the Omkareshwar dam across the Narmada river, will be the world’s largest, according to the state’s new and renewable energy minister, Hardeep Singh Dang.

That title is reportedly held at present by a 150 MW plant in Anhui, China which has been in operation since November 2017.

The 2,000ha Madhya Pradesh facility will require an estimated INR3,000 crore investment, according to Dang.

Timeline

The minister said the plant is expected to begin power generation by 2022-23.

Madhya Pradesh Power Management Co, the holding company for the state’s power distribution companies, will buy the power generated by 400 MW of the site’s capacity.

Dang said the International Finance Corporation, its World Bank parent and federal power transmission body Power Grid Corporation of India will support the project’s development. The project’s preliminary feasibility study has been completed with the help of the World Bank.

Dang said Power Grid Corporation would start surveying the transmission line route from the project area to the Khandwa substation this month. A tender to study the project’s environmental and social impacts will also be issued.

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