World’s Largest (4GW) Solar Project Planned For India

September 24th, 2013 by Jake Richardson

The Ultra-Mega Green Solar Power Project is intended to eventually produce 4 GW of solar power. If this goal is reached, it will be more than twice as large as India’s current solar power production. An estimated 6,000 million kWh per year will be fed into the national grid, if the project is realized.

The location is near Sambhar Lake, almost fifty miles from Jaipur, the capital city of Rajasthan. Over 20,000 acres will be used, but it appears so far it has not been reported if PV or concentrated solar will used, or a hybrid. Rajasthan was chosen due to high irradiation levels and large amounts of open space.

The first phase of the mega project will be constructing 1 GW through a collaboration between Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), Rajasthan Electronics and Instruments Limited (REIL) and SSL, the Solar Energy Corporation of India, and the Power Grid Corporation of India. SJVN, a hydro-electric power plant developer, will also contribute. The first phase could be completed by as early as 2016.

Funding for the 4 GW project could come from a newly passed bill for Corporate Social Responsibility. It requires 2% of annual net profits from certain companies to be used for projects for the social good.

Solar looks like a very promising path for India, because their total capacity for producing power from sunshine is vast with 5,000 TWh of solar insolation annually. Solar power has been increasing in leaps there. It makes sense that it would, with the abundant sunshine and very strong engineering culture in both professional and academic circles.

The national government is also committed to reducing climate change emissions, and trying to stabilize the country’s fluctuating energy problems. Additionally, investing in domestic, renewable energy production is a good long-term strategy, compared with sticking to the importing of fossil fuels. Currently, solar provides less than one percent of India’s power. Coal and hydro power are two of the main sources, but India has been experiencing power shortages. In 2012, a blackout caused almost 700 million people there to have no power.

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Tags: India, Jaipur

About the Author

Jake Richardson Hello, I have been writing online for some time, and enjoy the outdoors. If you like, you can follow me on Google Plus.

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mds

Graphical displays of the area required to produce an amount of solar power equivalent to all the power all us humans currently use:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Solar_land_area.png

http://i.imgur.com/j9wrB.jpg

Not too big an area when viewed on a world map. 3,600 square miles is a square that is 60 miles on each side. Not small, but probably only a smaller part of the desert Kyle Field is talking about. Of course you might want to put a lot of that solar on the roofs of houses and business, over parking lots, and over brown fields.

A “solar roof for the poor” program might be a good idea in India. The new owners get to keep part of the power for themselves for lights &/or cooking and the rest goes to the grid.
- Bob_Wallace
  
  The first link is 2006 and uses 8% efficiency. My how times have changed.
  It looks like the second link might be using 20% efficiency, if I read it correctly.
  
  http://landartgenerator.org/blagi/archives/127
  - mds
    
    Nice link! I had not seen that one. 20% is more appropriate, since cSi PV is headed there now. I expect >=20% to be the norm in a few more years. Thanks Bob!
  - mds
    
    btw I think your link is based on 20% efficiency. I don’t think my second link is. Squares are bigger than for the one on yours. I got that second link back in 2010, or earlier. Seems like 10% would be more likely average back then. That is a guess.
    - Bob_Wallace
      
      The one I linked seems to have been done in 2009. (I state without double checking.)
- mds
  
  Note: This is in response to Ivor O’Connor and Bob_Wallace comments up top on resplacing all the nuke plants in the USA with solar.
Kyle Field

I was just in India…and in Jaipur in November last year. Rajasthan is a vast desert…it reminded me a lot of the central desert here in california (which is quickly becoming it’s own solar Mecca). The amount of vast open desert there is pretty amazing…covering ~15% of the country’s north western land. It’s exciting to hear that they are taking on a project of that scale though I’m a little hesitant to get over excited given the wide spread corruption in india’s governing bodies. If India is to step out as a world leader (which I very much believe they can), the youth of india need to tackle the corruption head on first.
- Bob_Wallace
  
  Did you make it out to Jaisalmer? The juxtaposition of an 800+ year old fort and wind turbines is pretty interesting.
  - Kyle Field
    
    I did not…my 2.5 week whirlwind tour took me to Mumbai, Udaipur, Jaipur, Delhi, Agra, Pune, Goa then back to Mumbai. There is so much culture in India to explore and it just wouldnt fit into 2.5 weeks. I’m all about experiencing culture vs consuming it…so I’m ok with that.
    - Bob_Wallace
      
      Altogether I’ve spent over a year in India traveling around. I’ve still got a bunch of stuff left to see. It’s an incredibly varied country.
      
      A few years back I was at a temple in southern India where they feed hundreds of people each day. They were using solar water heaters to provide the water for dish washing and getting their electricity largely from wind and solar.
      
      There’s now a big program to provide temples with solar systems for lighting. I suspect that will be a great way to educate locals about how solar can work for them.
Ivor O’Connor

So we would need 100 6×6 mile squares, like seen here in India, scattered about to replace the nuclear power plants we have here in America?
- Bob_Wallace
  
  Someone want to tackle that math?
  
  If it’s right then we’d need 3,600 square miles.
  
  The Central Intelligence Agency’s World Factbook states that the total *land area* of the *U.S.* is 3,794,100 *square miles* (9,826,675 sq km).
  
  0.09% of US land area.
  
  Just for comparison sake, the Chernobyl exclusion zone is 1,660 *square miles.
  
  *
  - Matt
    
    I don’t have a reference, but I wonder want the total area of strip mining in US has been. Or what the total area of near flat roof tops plus parking lots is?
    - Bob_Wallace
      
      Strip mining for coal according to Source Watch = 162.5 miles per year.
      http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/The_footprint_of_coal
      
      A couple years back the EPA estimated that 2,200 square miles (5,700 km2) of Appalachian forests will be cleared for mountain top removal sites by 2012.
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountaintop_removal_mining
      
      I don’t see a separate number for parking lots but did find this –
      
      “the U.S. area devoted to roads and parking lots covers an estimated 61,000 square miles”
      
      http://grist.org/article/rice/
  - Ivor O’Connor
    
    Well I used figures from another site that I calculated it was about 36 sq miles. The number here makes it look more like 32 sq miles. I also rounded up and assumed all nuclear reactors produced 1GW but they probably produce on average much less.
    
    So we probably only need 60 5×6 squares. The sheer size is dramatic when looked at it from this perspective. Knowing how much land is wasted by nuclear and fossil fuel storage, mining, and operation is going to be needed at the fingertips for future debates.