Table of Contents
WHAT JUST HAPPENED?
• Shakti Sthala, hail ed as the world’s largest solar park by Karnataka government, was today inaugurated by CM Siddaramaiah in Pavagada taluk of Karnataka’s Tumkur district.
DO NOT GET CONFUSED
• Shakti Sthal which means ‘Place of Power and Strength’ is the Memorial site of Mrs. Indira Gandhi, the first lady and only Prime Minister of India
NOTES
• The 2,000 MW park, named as ‘Shakti Sthala’, spans across 13,000 acres spread over five villages
• The first phase of the park has 600 MW while another 1,400 MW will be added by December 2018.
• Once fully operational, the park will have the capacity to produce 2,000 MW of electricity — 453 MW more than the current world’s largest solar park in China, the Tengger Desert Solar Park.
CHINA, THE TENGGER DESERT SOLAR PARK
• The 1547MW solar power was installed in Zhongwei, Ningxia
• Know as the “Great Wall of Solar” in China. The Tengger Desert is an arid natural region that covers about 36,700 km and is mostly in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in China.
NOTES
• One of the unique features of the plant is, the land for the park was leased from the local community for 25 years, instead of the common practice of acquisition, , thereby allowing the
locals to retain the ownership of their land.
• The 2,000MW capacity plant is spread across an area of 13,000 acres, which was leased to the government by 2,300 local farmers at Rs 21,000 per acre per annum.
NOTES
•The project has been built over one of the most drought-prone regions in the state. Over past last five decades, more than 10,000 people were forced to migrate annually from Pavagada.
•The project will not only help in generating clean energy (thereby reducing the use of fossil fuels) but also help in the economic growth of a land
NOTES
• The park’s development was initiated with the creation of the Karnataka Solar Power Development Corp. Ltd (KSPDCL) in March 2015 as a joint venture between Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Ltd (KREDL) and Solar Energy Corp. of India (SECI).
• This solar project is part of the “Karnataka Solar Policy 2014-2021”
SOLAR ENERGY CORP. OF INDIA
• Solar Energy Corporation of India Ltd. (SECI) is a company of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India, established to facilitate the implementation of Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission
• Headquarters – New Delhi
• Ministry of New and Renewable Energy – Minister responsible – Shri. Raj Kumar Singh, Minister of State (Independent Charge)
OTHER MAJOR SOLAR PARKS OF INDIA
•Kurnool Ultra Mega Solar Park
• (Panyam mandal of Kurnool district, Andhra Pradesh)
•With a capacity of 1,000 MW
OTHER MAJOR SOLAR PARKS OF INDIA
• Kamuthi Solar Power Project
• Kamuthi Solar Power Project is a solar park spread over an area of 2,500 acres (10 km2) in Kamuthi, 90 km from Madurai, in the state of Tamil Nadu, India
• With a generating capacity of 648 MW
SOLAR POWER IN INDIA
• Global warming has to be curbed to a 1.5 degrees Celsius rise,
in accordance to the Paris Agreement of 2015.
• India is a signatory of this accord, solar energy is vital to meet
these commitments.
ADVANTAGES
WHAT ARE THE GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES?
• The National Solar Mission phase I was launched in 2010.(Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission)
• The program was inaugurated by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on 11 January 2010 with a target of 20GW by 2022 which was later increased to 100 GW by the Narendra Modi government in the 2015 Union budget of India
NOTES
CHALLENGES FACED IN PROLIFERATION OF SOLAR POWER
• Land: The setting up of solar projects requires vast land resources. Allocation of land for solar projects might compete with other uses
• High initial investment in setting up of photovoltaic panels
• Prices of solar power are still not as competitive as thermal power and hydroelectricity
WTO TO SET UP COMPLIANCE PANEL IN SOLAR DISPUTE BETWEEN INDIA, US
• In 2016, India had lost a case against the US at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) after the global trade body stated that power purchase agreements signed by the Indian government with solar firms for its National Solar Mission did not meet international trade norms
• Domestic content requirements (DCRs)
NOTES
• Initially, as much as 50% of a solar project was earmarked for bidding under the DCR mechanism.
• Gradually, with the increase in volume of the schemes, the share of the DCR-mandated solar installations came down to 10-15% of the overall project size.
• Hence, Domestic manufac ture of solar cells and panels has remained unattractive because cheap imports are available. Thus, domestic manufacturing in solar sector is yet to develop.
INTERNATIONAL SOLAR ALLIANCE
• India launched an International Solar Alliance (ISA) at the CoP21 Climate Conference
• Headquarters – Gwal Pahari, Gurugram, Haryana, India
•The International Solar Alliance (ISA) is an alliance of more than 121 countries, most of them being sunshine countries, which lie either completely or partly between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.
NOTES
• The World Bank is committed to supporting India’s solar energy push.
• The Bank is providing more than $1 billion to support India’s solar plans, starting with a Grid Connected Rooftop Solar project that aims to put solar panels on rooftops across the country, and 100MW of energy has already been financed through this project.
NOTES
•India has launched a solar project with state-of-the-art technology to electrify a remote village in Egypt.
• The Solar Electrification Project, an off-grid system that is ideal for remote locations, has been launched at Agaween village in the Western Desert in Matrouh Governorate, close to the Libyan border.
MCQ
For the first time, solar panels have been installed on which Indian warship?
A. INS Viraat
B. INS Tarkash
C. INS Vikrant
D. INS Sarvekshak
NOTES
•For the first time in the country, solar panels have been installed on an Indian warship.
•The survey class vessel INS Sarvekshak, attached with the southern naval command, has been fitted with 18 sheets of solar panels atop its hangar
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