On the back of GE Energy’s $50 million investment into India’s burgeoning renewable energy market comes news of plans to build Asia’s largest solar farm in the nation’s Gujarat District, a region well known for its progressive support for solar energy projects.
The 30 megawatt (MW) solar farm was established by Indian solar developer, Moser Baer Clean Energy Ltd (MBCEL) under the Gujarat government’s Solar Power policy of 2009. The policy guarantees investors in large-scale solar projects access to a range of incentives including 25-year-long Power Purchase Agreements with local electricity retailers.
Moser Baer Projects chairman Ratul Puri says the solar farm, which is to be inaugurated on October 14 by Indian Chief Minister Narendra Modi, could not have been completed without government assistance.
“The state of Gujarat is seen as one of the best solar power generation destinations due to its progressive solar policies, stable political and economic conditions and more importantly abundant availability of the daylight.”
MBCEL will spend Rs. 465-crore (AUD $95 million) on the 305-acre facility. The solar farm will incorporate around 236,000 thin-film solar photovoltaic panels – an option rapidly becoming more cost efficient for high-capacity electricity generation plants compared to crystalline solar panels or solar thermal technology
The company says the Gujarat farm will produce approximately 52 million kilowatt hours of clean energy per year to 50,000 households, and offset 50,000 tons of carbon emissions annually.
According to Puri, MBCEL will continue to invest in India’s solar boom, with the company committing to a target of 1500MW of installed solar capacity by 2015.
“As solar power is clean, abundantly available and reduces carbon emission, the Company is incessantly working towards commissioning of 300 MWs of solar projects in the next 12 months in India, Germany, Italy and UK. We shall have 100 MW operational capacity by the end of October, 2011 and plan to install more than 5 GWs by 2020.”
