India gets solar power boost with inauguration of 750MW plant
New Delhi, Jul 10 (efe-epa).- India received a boost in its drive to promote renewable energy on Friday by inaugurating the Rewa Solar Project, a mega solar power plant situated in the central part of the country with a total capacity of 750 megawatt and spread over 1,500 hectares (3,700 acres).
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the plant, situated in the city of Rewa in the Madhya Pradesh province, with three 250 MW solar generating units each, spread over 500 hectares of land within a massive solar park.
Modi said that 24 percent of the total energy produced by the plant would be supplied to the Delhi metro train project, while the rest would be used by the electricity distribution companies of the state.
“Rewa project will make the entire region a major hub for pure and clean energy in this decade,” said the prime minister, adding that the “biggest beneficiaries of this would be the poor, the middle class, the tribals and the farmers.”
Modi said that the central state would “soon” become the main center of solar power in the country as similar “major” projects were being developed in the districts of Neemuch, Shajapur, Chattarpur and Omkareshwar.
With such initiatives India, one of the most polluted countries in the world, aims to reduce its annual carbon emissions by approximately 15 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2).
Developed by the Rewa Ultra Mega Solar Limited, a joint venture between the provincial and central government, the plant is “an example of India’s commitment to achieve the target of 175 gigawatt (GW) of installed renewable energy capacity by 2022, with a solar installed capacity of 100 GW,” Modi said.
Chetan Singh Solanki, a professor at the department of energy science of the Indian Institute of Technology,Mumbai, told EFE that due to its size the project will have “significant generation and can be considered equivalent of a reasonable size coal power plant.”
“India is taking big leap in solar energy. It has installed over 35GW of solar power in short time and India intends to further increase the target on solar energy,” he added.
Apart from the Rewa project, India already operates some of the world’s largest solar power facilities such as the Bhadla solar power park in the northwestern state of Rajasthan.
The South Asian Nation had founded the International Solar Alliance along with France in 2015 to sponsor the transfer of technology in the sector to developing countries, with a target of collecting $1 billion in funds and generating a solar power capacity of 1000GW by 2030, along with enlisting 121 countries, that enjoy more than 300 sunny days annually, to the project. The alliance has 67 members currently. EFE-EPA
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