What is a Solar Power Plant

Solar Power Plant is a Device which generates power or electricity using Solar Energy.Note normally solar power plants refers to large ground mounted solar farms rather than the residential solar rooftop projects.However it is only a matter of usage and a solar power plant can refer to a very small solar panel of 5 watts as well as a huge solar plant of hundreds of megawatts consisting of hundreds of thousands of solar panels.

Types of Solar Power Plants

Note there are a number of solar energy technologies which convert the power from the sun to electricity.However the two main solar technologies in use are Solar Thermal Technology and Solar Photovoltaic Technology.Current Solar PV Technology accounts of the lion’s share of solar power generated globally and is gaining more marketshare as costs of solar power decrease.

1) Solar Thermal Power Plants

2) Solar PV Power Plants

Solar Power Plants in India

Solar Power Plants in India have increased tremendously in 2011 as solar power plants under the Indian federal government JNNSM subsidy scheme get completed under Phase 1.While the success of India’s subsidy scheme was in doubt due to irrational bidding during the auction,the sharp decrease in the price of PV solar panels has made the project winners quite lucky.Solar Thermal Projects by big firms like Reliance Power and Lanco also have managed to get debt closure and should also get finished.While I am not in favor of the Indian government’s support for large solar farms over rooftop solar projects,it is helping in putting Indian prominently in the global solar map.The Second Phase is supposed to ameliorate these problems but the first plans do not seem to be too great.The support for large solar farms will be increased from the current 5 MW cap to 20-25 MW cap.This will lead to only large investors,utilities and companies being left in the fray and lead to lesser competition.

Read about the Largest Solar Power Plants in the World

Cost of Setting up a Power Plant in India

The biggest advantage of solar energy are declining costs particularly for polycrystalline solar panels which has made the costs of building a solar power  plant come down by 50% in the last 2-3 years.The costs of setting up solar thermal plants are higher and the costs have not come down as  much which is making solar developers of CSP plants convert them into PV power plants.The costs of a solar power plants also depends on what kind of solar panel technology you are using,for example it typically costs less for thin film solar plant and if you use solar trackers it costs more.The main thing that you should consider is the lifetime cost which is to divide the total cost of solar power plant divided by the energy generated over the lifetime of the plant.

1. The capital cost of a large solar power plant using solar panels costs about $3/watt
2. The capital cost of a large solar thermal power plant using parabolic troughts/power towers will  cost around $5-6/watt

Annexure

You can read the complete list of solar energy projects in India (note this is a ever changing list)

 Solar Thermal Power Plants to be constructed under JNNSM

1. Lanco Solar  100 MW  Rajasthan
2. Reliance Power 100 MW Rajasthan
3. KSK Energy 100 MW Rajasthan
4. Godavari Power 50 MW Rajasthan
5. Aurum Renewables 20 MW Gujarat
6. Corporate Ispat  50 MW Rajasthan
7. Megha Engineering 50 MW Andhra Pradesh

Solar PV Power Plants under JNNSM ( 5 MW)