The state of Gujarat, India, has commissioned its first 5 MW solar power plant at Khadoda village located in Sabarkantha district, North Gujarat. Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of the state, has inaugurated the plant, which will be further expanded to generate 10 MW of power by October this year. Azure Power, a Delhi, India-based company has constructed the plant.
The International Finance Corporation, the financing segment of the World Bank, has invested around Rs.180 crores in the project and is further planning to invest around Rs.450 crores to generate 100 MW of solar power in the state.
The plant is linked to the power grid of Gujarat Urja Vidyut Nigam to distribute the electricity generated from the plant. The state government has entered into a power purchase agreement to buy the produced power for a period of 25 years. The generated power will be distributed to over 100,000 people living in local villages and will offset carbon dioxide emissions of about 15,000 metric tons.
According to Modi, the state is planning to install 100 MW of solar power capacity in the following six months. He added that the state will concentrate more on solar power generation and related research to safeguard its natural resources and will create more than one lakh employment opportunities.
Source: http://www.azurepower.com/