khalid mustafa beg
Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi on July 10, 2020 unveiled Asia’s largest solar power plant in the Rewa district of Madhya Pradesh.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
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- The new 750 MW Solar Power Plant, developed over an area of 1500 hectares, was set up by the Rewa Ultra Mega Solar Limited (RUMSL), which is a joint venture between Madhya Pradesh Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (MPUVN) and Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI). Where both parties will have 50% stake in this project.
- Rs. 138 crore has been provided by the Centre to RUMSL for this solar park to be developed.
- The project comprises of 3 solar generating units of 250 MW each located on a 500 hectares of land, inside the Solar Park. Mahindra Renewable Pvt., Arinsun Clean Energy Pvt., and ACME Jaipur Solar Power Pvt. are the 3 companies that bagged the mandate to build these 3 units.
- Rewa Solar Power Plant is expected to reduce around 15 lakh tons of CO2 emission per year.
- For its innovation and excellence, Rewa Solar Power project has also received the World Bank Group President’s Award.
- The project has also been included in PM’s “A Book of Innovation: New Beginning.”
GRID PARITY BARRIER
It is the first solar project to break the “grid parity barrier”. In comparison to the tariffs of solar projects in early 2017 of approximately Rs. 4.5 per unit, The Rewa Solar Project achieved the first year tariff of Rs. 2.97 per unit. Thus, making it more affordable than others.
WHO WILL UTILISE THE ENERGY FROM THIS PROJECT
- This is the first renewable energy project to supply the energy outside the state.
- It will supply 24% of energy generated from the project to Delhi Metro while the remaining energy of 76% will be supplied to the state of Madhya Pradesh.
This will be a great step for India in order to achieve the national goal of 100GW of solar power generation capacity by the year 2022, when India will complete 75 years of its Independence from the British raj. Right now, as per March 31st 2020, the total installed capacity of Solar Power in the country is around 34,627 MW.
United Nations chief Antonio Guterres also hailed India’s project as “good example” for pushing towards renewable energy usage.
Mr. Guterres said, “Renewable energy is the only energy source expected to grow in 2020. Coal has no place in the Covid-19 recovery plans. Nations must commit to net-zero emissions by the year 2050 and submit more ambitious national climate plans before COP-26 next year.”
The Government is under way to set up another, and bigger, Solar Power Park in Tumkur district of Karnataka which will generate around 2,000 MW of energy. This project will be developed by Karnataka Solar Power Development Corporation Pvt. Ltd.
