Vishakhapatnam, Aug 21: The largest floating solar photovoltaic (PV) project till date in India was declared open by National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Limited. The 25-megawatt (MW) project has been built on the reservoir of NTPC’s Simhadri thermal station in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh and was inaugurated by Shri Sanjay Madan, RED (WR2 & SR), NTPC.
The Ministry of Power reported that this is the first solar project to be set up under the Flexibilization Scheme, notified by the Government of India in 2018. The project sprawls over 75 acres in a raw water (RW) reservoir and has a unique anchoring design. This project will not only generate electricity from more than 1 lakh solar PV modules but will also provide at least 46000 tons of carbon dioxide every year during its lifespan and save 1364 million litres of water per annum. This generation capacity can provide electricity to around 7000 households and will be adequate to meet annual water requirements of around 6700 households.
The 2000MW coal based Simhadri station is the first power project to implement an open sea intake from the Bay of Bengal which has been functional for more than 20 years. NTPC has also reported that it is planning to set up a hydrogen-based micro grid system on a pilot basis at Simhadri.
More about NTPC: The Government of India groups Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) under three different categories – Maharatna, Navratna, and Miniratna. These categorizations are based on different criteria like size of company, whether the company is publicly listed on Indian stock exchange and annual turnover among many others. NTPC is one of the 10 Maharatna part of the UN High-level Dialogue on Energy (HLDE). The group has over 17 GW of capacity under at affordable prices has been the hallmark of NTPC.
NTPC Group now has 71 power stations with a total installed capacity of 66900 MW, including 29 renewable projects. It has set a target to install 60 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy (RE) capacity by 2032. NTPC is also India’s first energy company to declare its energy compact goals as part of the UN High-level Dialogue on Energy (HLDE). The group has over 17 GW of capacity under construction, including 5 GW of renewable energy projects.
