Solar Parks in India

Solar parks are being aggressively built both by the government and the private sector to take advantage of India’s solar policy, which subsidizes the development of such parks where a large number of utility solar plants can be built. The first solar park was built in Charnaka, Gujarat and its success has led to a number of similar solar parks being built in different places both by private and state governments. The advantage of these parks is that they lower the cost of power, since common infra and regulatory facilities allow developers to quickly build these plants. The infra can be shared by different power plants and common utilities such as water, sewage, roads etc. are also built keeping in mind the specific requirements of solar PV plants.

Private real estate player Kulkarni is planning to build a 100 MW solar park. Other private companies too are developing these parks, as they are a good way to monetize large tracts of land in rural areas. These companies can sell developed land to other companies or they can build the power plants and sell it to investors. State governments have also become aggressive in using these parks to give a strong push for the growth of solar capacity in their respective regions. Andhra Pradesh or Seemandhara plans to build two giant solar power parks in the state. The government plans a 1000 MW and a 300 MW solar park to help solve its chronic power deficit issues. AP like most other states in India have abundant sunshine and massive power deficits. Solar power is an ideal solution given it requires no fuel and can be built up quickly too nowadays.

Note solar parks are a unique Indian business model, however the concept is not really too prevalent in other parts of the world. India is planning to build ultra mega solar power plants in 4-5 places, with massive capacities of 1000-4000 MW. However they will be standalone plants, with participation mostly by group of companies and not a park where anyone can buy land and build a plant.

Deccan Chronicle

Andhra Pradesh government will set up two solar parks of 1,000 MW and 300 MW in Anantapur and Guntur districts respectively.

The AP Energy department and Non-conventional Energy Development Corporation of Andhra Pradesh Limited [Nedcap] have been given 500 acre land in P. Kothapalli of Anantapur district, while the land for the one at Guntur is yet to be finalised.

The market value of each acre has been fixed at Rs 2 lakh and 10 per cent of the total marklet value per acre would be the lease amount to be paid by Nedcap.

Officials said that the state which was reeling under 22 million units power deficit per day when the TD took charge two months ago, has as on date achieved almost zero power deficit. The power demand in AP is around 135 million units currently and it is almost being met without any scheduled power cuts, officials added.