Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has successfully commissioned India’s largest floating solar PV plant.
Located at NTPC Simhadri in Andhra Pradesh, the 25 MW floating SPV project covers 100 acres of the water body.
Besides producing clean power, the project will also reduce water evaporation by providing shade to the covered area. It will also have a higher yield as compared to conventional ground-mounted projects due to the cooling effect.
“BHEL has designed an innovative floating array to meet the unique requirement of anchoring the support structures without touching or loading, either the reservoir floor or the bund structure,” the official statement said.
“This complex module array has been designed, for the first time in India, to withstand gusts of wind up to 180 km per hour. In view of 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.
BHEL’s scope of work in the project included design, engineering, procurement and construction of the solar project. The recently formed Solar Business Division has executed the project.
BHEL’s portfolio of floating SPV projects is the largest in the country, with more than 45 MW projects commissioned and around 107 MW under execution.