How did Karnataka become the Top Solar state in India

Solar Power in Karnataka 

Solar power in Karnataka crossed the 5 GW mark of cumulative solar installations in Q1’18. The state had installed 2 GW of solar power in 2017 itself. The first quarter was an aggressive one for Karnataka in terms of installations wherein, the state installed close to 3 GW of solar power. The state now has more than 1 GW of solar projects in the pipeline.

The state has upwardly revised its solar installation target to 6000 MW by March 2021 out of which 40% will come from rooftop solar installations. The estimated potential of solar power in Karnataka has been increased to 24.7 GW from 20 GW earlier. The state is regarded as having one of the friendliest regulations and policies towards distributed solar generation. Karnataka’s solar growth has been impressive owing to better policies, ease of installation of solar projects and removal of unwanted hurdles. The solar policy in Karnataka encourages public-private participation in this sector, solar rooftop generation and decentralized generation where the grid is inaccessible.  Karnataka is also inspiring farmers to lease their land for wind and solar farm development.

Read more about Floating Solar Power Projects for landlocked areas.

Telangana is next in line with a little more than 3 GW of cumulative solar installations, adding ~695 MW of solar installations during the fourth quarter of 2017 alone. Karnataka thus leads by a wide margin. Following Telangana is Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu.

The Pavagada Solar Park in the Tumkur district of Karnataka is spread across an area of 13,000 acres.  The solar park, about 70 km from Bengaluru, is set to become the world’s largest solar park with 2 GW of solar capacity by the end of 2018. About 600 MW of power was commissioned in January 2018 and a further 1,400 MW are planned by the end of 2018. The Pavagada Solar Park was constructed upon the approval of Karnataka Solar Power Development Corporation Ltd., which is a joint venture between Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Ltd (KREDL) and the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI).

Note: Rajasthan’s Bhadla solar park in Jodhpur district is also one of the largest solar parks in the world with a capacity of 2,255 MW when fully operational. Read more about the Largest Solar Farms Around the World.

We hope the state witnesses robust power demand and keeps on adding more solar plants in future.