World's Largest Solar Plant to Set Low Benchmark for India's Power Costs

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--More details have been released on India's plan to build the world's largest solar-power facility. Following an initiative by the country's Heavy Industries Ministry, the 4,000-megawatt (MW) facility is to be set up near Sambhar Lake, 75 kilometers from Jaipur, the state capital of Rajasthan.

The project will cover an area of 23,000 acres, of which 18,000 acres will be made available by Sambhar Salts Limited, a subsidiary of Hindustan Salts Limited.

The project will be set up and run by a joint venture of four public-sector utilities: BHEL (BSE:500103) (New Delhi); Power Grid Corporation of India (BSE:532898) (New Delhi), Hindustan Salts (Jaipur); and Rajasthan Electronics and Instruments Limited (Jaipur). It will be implemented in phases, with the first 1,000-MW phase scheduled to be commissioned in 2016.

With the current cost of solar power in India standing at about $0.11 per unit power, the project would come in at a benchmark cost of $0.09 per unit, the lowest ever in India, which should bring down the overall cost of solar-sourced power in India. The project is expected to generate 6 billion units of electricity annually when fully implemented.

No details have been released on the solar technologies to be used for the project.

"Solar power at the 5.50-Rupee [$0.09] rate would surely bring in buyers," said Amit Kumar of PricewaterhouseCooper's energy & utilities business. "Prior discussions with the government, distribution companies and Ministry of Finance have yielded that solar power at this rate is most viable for finance and purchase."

The project will become the flagship of the national Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, which is targeting 20,000 MW of grid-connected solar power by 2022.

For related information, see August 26, 2013, article - Rajasthan to Build World's Largest Solar Thermal Park.

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