Wind Solar Hybrid – Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh, the southern India state which used to be a power deficit state has now not only become a power surplus state, but also the hub of renewable energy generation in India. The state has already established a number of large solar parks in the state and has a very progressive solar policy, which substantially incentivizes solar energy while minimizing the red tape associated with regulations and permission. Now the government in the state plans to aggressively pursue the solar wind hybrid policy which has been announced the central government. The Indian government wants to increase the utilization of the limited land and transmission infrastructure available in the country. The solution to this has been the solar wind hybrid plant policy.

Also Read Friendly Solar states in India.

The benefits of this policy over standalone solar or wind power projects is:

• Common evacuation infrastructure will help reduce the transmission costs as solar energy can be transported during the daytime while wind energy can be transported during other times (night or evening)
• The land will also be better utilized if the area between the large wind turbines can be used to put up solar power panels. This will increase the land utilization and decrease the land costs
• Improve grid reliability and stability as wind and solar are generally complementary in nature and reduce the intermittency of standalone solar or wind power
• Along with solar wind hybrid some amount of energy storage is also being planned in such plants which will further improve grid balancing

AP has a plan to developing 18 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2020 which is a huge target considering the current less than 3 GW of RE capacity in the state. This will not only mean a 6 fold increase in RE capacity in the state but also form 10% of India’s 175 GW 2022 RE target making it the hub of RE generation.

3 GW of solar wind hybrid plants are being planned by AP, which would constitute around 30% of India’s overall 10 GW of solar wind hybrid target. AP has many firsts in RE such as being the first state to use energy storage in a solar tender.