Dec 30 2010
The colossal solar power park in Gujarat, India, designed to generate around 500 MW solar power will be inaugurated by Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of the State, on 30th December 2010.
The park to be located at Charanka village, Santalpur Taluka in Patan District, is said to receive sunlight for over 330 days in a year, which can be equated to producing of 5.5 to 6.0 kW of solar radiation per square kilometer every day.
The proposed solar park will be located on a sprawling 2,000 hectares of land out of which nearly 1,000 hectares are wastelands. The government has already initiated land acquisition procedures. The power lines required to transfer the generated solar power will be constructed by the state owned Gujarat Energy Transmission Corporation (GETCO). The government has already completed the required geotechnical surveys and topography surveys required to commence the project. The solar park will be complete with the infrastructure requirements such as electricity, water, rain water drainage facilities, access roads and facilities to export the generated power. In the phase one of the project, Gujarat Power Corporation (GPCL) will acquire the lands, chunk them into the required plots sizes and lease them to the energy developing companies for a period of 30 years. To encourage the investors, the Gujarat government has agreed to purchase nearly 933 MW of power generated by the solar farms under it’s newly formed solar policy. When completed the power generated from the solar parks will offset nearly 8 lakh tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year.
The project while allowing the generation of clean solar energy will also see more developments in villages in and around Charanka. The government has plans to invest around 7,500 crore rupees for the project. The project will bring a number of employment opportunities in areas such as solar panel assembling, civil construction works, electrical wiring, solar panel cleaning work in solar farms and more for the people living in nearby villages.
Source: http://guj-epd.gov.in/