India's biggest 'floating' solar power plant likely to be commissioned by May 2021

India is set to get its biggest 'floating' solar plant to date that is currently under development in Ramagundam, Telangana. The plant that is being developed by the Indian energy Maharatna National Thermal Power Corporation Limited, is likely to be commissioned by May this year.
 
NTPC is said to commission select floating solar plants in the next few months with a capacity of around 217 MW. In the list of upcoming solar projects, the NTPC has decided to install a floating solar plant with a capacity of 92 MW at Kayamkulam gas plant in Kerala, while another such unit with a capacity of 25 MW will be set up at Simhadri power plant.
 
The energy conglomerate is further in the process of installing solar power plants in Tamil Nadu with a capacity of 450 MW of which the ground-mounted solar power plant will be 230 MW at Eettayapuram near Tuticorin in TN. These installations of the aforementioned solar power projects were to start last year, however, they got delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The floating solar plant in Telangana

The solar power plant that is to come up in Ramagundam will be installed over a water surface of 450 acres, in a reservoir. With lakhs of solar photovoltaic panels that will be installed in the plant, the estimated cost for the execution of this solar project is said to be Rs 430 crore.
 
This apart, the energy giant that has a total of over 9,000 MW as its installed capacity of the total capacity of 64,880 MW, is also mulling to implement two 800 MW coal-fired thermal power projects in Ramagundam. The latest development in this regard is that the project will be commissioned in two phases — phase 1 will be commissioned by January 2022 while phase 2 will be commissioned by March 2022.

NTPC projects will boost the overall capacity of the Indian solar sector

The initiatives being taken by NTPC to set up solar power plants in select Indian states will only further empower India's aim to achieve 175 Gigawatt (GW) installed renewable energy (RE) by 2022. This includes solar and wind energy. Moreover, India also initiated the International Solar Alliance (ISA) drive in 2015, where at least 70 countries have signed the pact for investment in various projects, promoting renewable energy and its sources.