12 Major Ports In India To Go Solar

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Originally published on CleanTechies.

The drive for the deployment of solar in India has gained further momentum as the Ministry of Shipping has recently announced that it is planning to install 82.64 MW of utility-scale solar power plants at the country’s 12 major ports.

The funds required for the development of the solar plants will be arranged by the ports from their own resources, with no contribution from the government, as stated by Minister of State for Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan in a written reply to the Parliament.

This announcement is in line with the Indian government’s Green Port initiative launched earlier this year, which aims for ‘cleaner and greener’ airports through the use of renewable energy technology. The initiative would also offset the cost of purchasing power from the grid, and would help to meet the Renewable Energy Purchase Obligation (RPO), set by the government, mandating a certain percentage of renewables into the total energy mix.

Indian ports, mainly in Vizag, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, and New Mangalore, have already set up a capacity of 6.84 MW, and a further 16 MW of capacity in the pipeline is expected for commissioning by March of next year.

The Indian government is also planning to push solar power generation in a big way. The Ministry of Civil Aviation  recently announced that as many as 143 airports across India are planning to set up a cumulative solar power capacity of 148 MW.

Several ports across the world have solar photovoltaic installations. Recently, Jurong Port in Singapore, in collaboration with Sunseap Leasing, has completed the installation of 9.5 MW of solar capacity on its warehouse rooftop, making it the largest port-based solar facility in the world.

Image Credit: Sureshiras | CC-BY-SA 3.0

Reprinted with permission.