750 MW solar plant in MP, India

India has started work on building the world’s largest solar PV power plant of 750 MW capacity in Madhya Pradesh, which is located in the central part of India. This plant will be funded by a massive loan from World Bank. The huge plant will allow economies of scales and the projected capex is around Rs 6 crores/ MW, which is around 90c/watt. This is a huge reduction in capital cost, given that US Department of Energy is targeting a $1/watt cost of solar power plant only by 2020. The 750 MW plant will be almost 40% bigger than the biggest solar plants in USA built by First Solar. The plan will also be almost 3x bigger than India’s solar park at Charnaka, Gujarat. Madhya Pradesh will become India’s biggest solar power state, once the project is completed by early 2017.

A JV company formed by the state and federal government will be in charge of doing the feasibility studies, funding, procurement, construction supervision and operations. There will also be a transmission line, which will move the power from the plant to the central grid. The power will be sold to different states with MP getting 40% of the power. The environment and social impact assessment of building this plant on almost 4000 acres of land in the Rewa district is about to start. The funding is more or less tied up and major government companies are on board. Both the state and central governments are supportive. MP built the most solar capacity last year and the government has walked its talk in the area of renewable energy. It also helps that both the governments are ruled by the same party which wants to make India a leader in solar energy generation.

The power costs from this plant are set to establish new benchmarks for solar power in India, with tariff of Rs 5.5 /kWh only. This is almost 20% less the benchmark set by the Indian regulator CERC. The massive scale of this plant will enable the developer to reduce the costs. Note solar energy is starting to compete with imported coal and natural gas in terms of costs. With the efficiency of solar technology improving by the day, expect solar energy to see a massive boom globally.