Bhadla solar Park to fuel Rajasthan’s plan to triple solar power generation

1. More than a million solar panels, installed on an arid stretch spread over 45 sq km in Jodhpur district, will fuel Rajasthan’s ambitious plan to generate 7,000 MW of solar energy by 2019 end. Once fully operational, the Bhadla solar park will generate 2,255 MW, making it “the largest solar park in the world”.

2. The park, being developed in four phases, is currently generating 746 MW and phase 3 of 1,000 MW is under implementation.

3. Apart from the Bhadla solar park, Rajasthan has already commissioned solar projects of 1,592 MW over the past four years. Besides, a 750 MW project being developed by Essel Infra at Pokhran, a 1,500 MW project is being jointly set up by Adani group and Rajasthan government at Jaisalmer and a 1,000 MW project is under construction by RRECL at Nokh in Jaisalmer. All these projects are expected to be commissioned by 2019 end.

4. “Rajasthan is on course to triple its solar power generation capacity in next two years to 7,000 MW from 2,246 MW at present. “A major contributor will be world’s largest solar park at Bhadla, which will have a total capacity of 2,255 MW, and we expect it to be fully commissioned by March 2019”.

5. The Bhadla solar park already has two phases in operation, producing 746 MW of power, with big names in the business such as the Adani and IL&FS among the developers. RRECL has implemented phase I and phase II of Bhadla solar park. Under phase I (75 MW), five projects of 60 MW have been commissioned, and under phase II (680 MW) all the 10 projects of total capacity of 680 MW have been commissioned.

6. The third phase (1,000 MW) is being developed by Saurya Urja Company of Rajasthan Ltd, which is a joint venture of Rajasthan government and IL&FS. Out of 1,000 MW, projects of 500 MW capacity have been awarded at a tariff of ?2.44 and ?2.45 per unit.

7. For remaining 500 MW capacity, an online e-auction was held on December 12, 2017 and tariff determined at ?2.46 and ?2.47 per unit. These projects are likely to be commissioned by March 2019.The fourth phase (500 MW) is being developed by Adani Renewable Energy Park Rajasthan Ltd, a joint venture of Rajasthan government and Adani Enterprises.

8. Until the solar park was established, Bhadla on the fringes of the Thar Desert, about 200 km from Jodhpur, only made headlines for extreme heat with temperatures crossing 50 degrees in the summer. However, the sunny and arid region is now not only generating clean energy but also helping change the lives of people by providing employment and business opportunities.

9. Bhadla offers a glimpse into that future. A sight that will become familiar not just in the hinterland but also a permanent feature of the urban landscape as solar panels find their spaces on rooftops of city buildings. About 40 per cent of the 1,00,000 MW target is to be met through such decentralised rooftop solar systems.

10. Large solar parks like the one in Bhadla are designed to evoke the wonderment that dams and huge power plants did in the 1960s and 1970s. From the middle of one of the blocks, all that the eye can see in every direction are gleaming silicon surfaces of solar panels, interspersed with small buildings that serve as control rooms or house transformers and other equipment.

11. Among the first players to start operations here is the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), which began producing electricity from Bhadla in February this year. NTPC is developing four blocks of 65 MW each as part of the second phase of the project that will eventually see an installation of 680 MW. The first phase of 75 MW is also operational. The NTPC blocks alone produce between 12 and 13 lakh million units of electricity a day, enough to power about 200 average urban households for a year.

A report released in October 2017 by the International Energy Agency (IEA) has stated that India’s renewable energy capacity will more than double by 2022. The union government has an ambitious target of raising it to 175 GW by 2022 including 100 GW of solar and 60 GW of wind energy.