Andhra Pradesh gets a new floating solar power plant

Context

A floating solar power plant was commissioned at Meghadri Gedda reservoir in Andhra Pradesh’s Visakhapatnam by the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC).

Key-points

• The power plant can produce 4.2 million units of power each year, and has been started on 12 acres of area.
• Besides that, 54,000 tonnes of coal is also being saved per year, leading in the reduction of the emissions by 3,022 tonnes per year.

About Solar plants 

• Solar plants or solar farms can be either ground-mounted or set up on the surface of water bodies. 
• Though these floating farms are a bit more expensive than the traditional ones mounted on land surfaces, they have advantages as well.
• At a time when large tracts of land are unavailable, floating farms do not require land to be acquired for the installation of photovoltaic panels. 
• They are more efficient as the presence of water underneath helps them keep cool.
• They also reduce water evaporation, thereby saving more water for hydropower generation.

India’s largest floating solar plant

• The commissioning comes weeks after India’s largest floating solar plant became operational at Ramagundam in Telangana’s Peddapalli district. 
• The 100-megawatt (MW) floating solar power photovoltaic project was commissioned by the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), the country’s foremost public-sector power generator.
• The 100 MW floating solar plant spread over 500 acres of the NTPC’s reservoir at Ramagundam.
• It was built at a cost of Rs 423 crore through Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited on an EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) contract.