Gujarat's 'Solar Hub' Commissioning 500 Megawatts of Solar Power in January

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Bidding to become India's solar power hub, the state of Gujarat is looking to commission more than 500 megawatts (MW) of new solar power capacity by the end of this month, according to government sources.

Almost 300 MW of solar power capacity has been commissioned or is ready for commissioning. Already commissioned is 175 MW of solar capacity, with 128 MW ready for commissioning. The latter is waiting for transmission power evacuation facilities to be put in place in the coming week. A further 200 to 250 MW of solar power is expected to be operational by the end of January.

In the Charanka Solar Park, more than 500 MW of solar power capacity has been planned. A small number of units have started operating, with more in the pipeline.

The state's principal secretary for energy and petrochemicals said that these solar power generation capacities were already significantly higher than the total solar power installed in the country as a whole. "This is no mean achievement," he said.

Power purchase agreements have been signed by Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited for 968.5 MW of solar power. The tariff for projects commissioned by December 31, 2011, was fixed at 15 rupees ($1 = Rs 51.6) per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for the first 12 years and 5 rupees per kWh from the 13th to 25th year. The effective tariff-setting deadline has been extended by the Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission (GERC) to January 28, 2012.

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