State-owned company commissions India's largest floating solar plant

INDIA’S state-owned power utility BHEL on Thursday (16) announced the commissioning of the country's largest floating solar photovoltaic plant in Andhra Pradesh.

Located at NTPC Simhadri in the state of Andhra Pradesh, the 25-megawatt floating SPV project covers an area of 100 acres, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) said without disclosing the project cost.

"BHEL has successfully commissioned India's largest floating solar PV plant. Notably, with its unique state-of-the-art design, the project is an engineering marvel, created by BHEL," the company said in a statement.

BHEL said its scope of work in the project included design, engineering, procurement and the construction of the solar project, which has been executed by the company's recently formed solar business division.

The project will help save valuable land resources and conserve water by reducing evaporation, it said.

It further said this complex module array has been designed for the first time in India to withstand gusts of wind up to 180 km/hour.

Given the coastal location of the project site that leads to severe corrosion, all the platform structures and other equipment have been made corrosion resistant, it added.

The engineering firm is the leading EPC (engineering, procurement and construction) player in the solar industry in India, with an overall portfolio of more than 1.2 gigawatts.

Its portfolio of floating solar PV projects is also the largest in the country, with more than 45 MW projects commissioned and around 107 MW under execution.

The company offers EPC solutions for both grid-interactive and off-grid, ground-mounted, rooftop, floating and canal top solar plants.