Karnataka to set up world’s biggest solar park

2,000-MW park will come on 10,000 acres of land in Pavagada

Karnataka, which entered the global power map by setting up Asia’s first hydroelectric station, is now embarking on another milestone mission of setting up a mega solar power park, said to be the world’s biggest. The park, with a capacity of 2,000 MW, will come up on 10,000 acres of land in the parched Pavagada taluk of Tumakuru district.

Secretary, Union Ministry of New and Renewal Energy, Upendra Tripathy and Additional Chief Secretary, Karnataka Energy Department, Ravi Kumar, who announced this at a press conference here on Friday, said the work on the proposed park would start soon.

The 1,000 MW solar park being implemented in Andhra Pradesh is the biggest such project so far in the country. The Centre would support the park by offering a subsidy of Rs. 20 lakh per mega Watt, Mr. Tripathy said.

According to sources, Pavagada was chosen for the solar park because of a combination of various factors, including high sunlight exposure, backwardness of the area, and lesser demand for land.

In addition to the park, Karnataka has bigger plans for the renewable energy sector as the State on Friday committed itself to setting up projects to tap green energy to the tune of 16,000 MW in the next five to seven years. The commitment was made at a meeting with Ministry of New and Renewal Energy authorities here where the Centre wanted the States to take up the responsibility of executing green energy project proposals to the tune of 1,75,000 MW received by it during the renewable energy global investors’ meet.

To facilitate evacuation of such a massive quantum of renewable energy from the generation sites, the Centre has also decided to set up an exclusive pan-India green corridor at a cost of Rs. 36,000 crore, Mr. Tripathy said. To raise resources for renewable energy sector infrastructure, the Centre would float tax-free green bonds to the tune of Rs. 5,000 crore in about three months from now, he said.

Set up roof-top solar plants with home loans

Special Correspondent

Now, you can set up a roof-top solar power plant on your house to take care of your power requirements through bank loans which would be part of home loan or home improvement loan.

Secretary, Union Ministry for New and Renewable Energy, Upendra Tripathi, who announced this at a press conference here on Friday, said this was possible as the Reserve Bank of India had included renewable energy under the priority lending category. Individuals could borrow a maximum of Rs. 10 lakh under this scheme.

Also to take care of the service and repair requirements of such roof-top solar power plants, the Centre was set to launch Surya Mithra scheme under which 50,000 rural unemployed youth with a qualification of Class 7 would be given free training in handling solar power plants, he said.