Even though Gujarat is a power surplus state, it is investing huge amount of money in solar energy. Inaugurating the Charanka solar park which had an aggregated operational capacity of 500 MW last month, the state’s chief minister Narendra Modi dedicated it to the nation calling it Gujarat’s contribution to the war against global warming and climate change.

“For ages we have been worshiping Sun god. It’s time to get his blessings. And, Gujarat will show how,” Narendra Modi told an applauding crowd of 5000 in Charanka in Patan district. The chief minister was not invoking gods to impress upon the audience.

He was talking about the amalgamation of science and technology with business. The context was the inauguration of the 500 MW solar park, Asia’s first and the largest on April 24.

The park has an aggregated operational capacity of 500 MW of solar power projects commissioned on a single location with 21 solar project developers setting up their projects.

While Gujarat’s contribution to the generation of solar energy may look minuscule compared to the target of 20,000 MW set in the national solar mission by 2020, it will appear huge seen in the context of all India figure of 900 MW installation capacity.

“We have set our eyes on achieving the target of 10,000 MW soon,” Modi said to the cheering audience. Although it will take a while before the CM’s ambitious target becomes a reality, Gujarat has certainly raced ahead of other states in getting huge investment in the solar energy generation.

“The solar installations in Gujarat have attracted an investment of Rs 9,000 crore,” said DJ Pandian, principle secretary, energy, Gujarat government. 

Gujarat’s achievement in attracting investment in solar energy sector is significant keeping in mind the energy requirements of the country.

According to ministry of power’s latest estimates India has an installed capacity of 199.87GW, which though is world’s fifth largest, is short by 21000 MW. And, with coal which accounts for 55 percent of India’s installed electricity capacity, being a fast depleting resource, it is important that the country looked for other source of power.

India has a rich solar energy resource. The country receives 200 MW/km square (megawatt per kilometre square) of average intensity of solar radiation. With a geographical area of 3.287 million km square, this amounts to 657.4 million MW.

Although Gujarat is a power surplus state, it announced the solar power Policy in January 2009. Under the policy, the Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission (GERC) agreed for an attractive feed-in tariff of Rs 15/unit (the GERC will buy power at this rate from the developers) for the first 12 years and Rs 5/unit for the subsequent 13 years.

Also, since huge area of land is required for solar projects (approx. 5 acres/MW), the government introduced the concept of solar parks.

The Charanka solar park
The foundation stone for the solar Park was laid at Charanka on December 30, 2010. Gujarat Power Corporation Limited (GPCL), the nodal agency for implementation of the Solar Park, invested Rs 300 crore into the Solar Park infrastructure, while Gujarat Energy Transmission Corporation Limited (GETCO) invested Rs 650 crore into the smart evacuation and transmission network. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) provided a loan of Rs 500 crore for smart transmission network development to GETCO.

In a record one-year time the park was functional by January 2012.

“The park offers the advantage of access to government waste lands, high solar radiations, utilisation of common infrastructure to host multiple solar power projects and extending industry and employment to the remote location of Gujarat,” said Pandian, principle secretary, energy.

The park has helped the local economy too. It has already provided employment to 30,000 skilled and unskilled workers. The operation and maintenance activity for the solar plants promises to provide steady employment to 1,500 personnel for the next 25 years. Further, the solar power plants will generate 30 lakh units of clean energy per day, which can provide electricity to 10 lakh households. Above all, these solar power plants will save CO2 emissions at the rate of 10 lakh tonnes per year.

“India has huge potential in the solar energy sector, and Gujarat government’s effort for encouraging investment is the step in the right direction,” said Sunil Gupta, head, clean energy, Standard Chartered Bank.

“The Gujarat government has exploited the economy of scale by setting up this huge solar park and bringing together 21 solar power developers. The prices of solar energy will certainly fall down,” said V Saibaba, CEO, Lanco Solar.

Rooftop solar installations
While the concept of solar park has taken off and huge investments are pouring in, the Gujarat government is not resting on its laurels. “We will also simultaneously promote solar rooftop installations,” said Pandian.

Gandhinagar, the state capital, is being developed as a model solar city, the first-of-its-kind in the country. Gandhinagar Solar City Project has multiple installations of solar rooftop systems ranging from 1 kilowatt (kW) to 150 kW at more than 150 locations, aggregating to a capacity of 1.39 MW. These systems cover a total area of two hectares on roofs, which amounts to approximately 2% of the total roof space in the capital city. Further, these systems contribute to approximately 1% of the total energy consumption of the city. Now, the government has floated a 5 MW Gandhinagar (Solar) Photovoltaic Rooftop Programme through public-private partnership (PPP). This is the largest solar rooftop programme in India, and is structured with a vision to mainstream the practice of solar rooftop systems in the country.

Similar solar rooftop programmes will be extended to more cities like Mehsana, Bhavnagar, Rajkot, Surat and Vadodara in the near future.

Eventually, the solar rooftop programme will open up to one and all in Gujarat through a sustainable policy that will be launched in the near future. “Everyone in Gujarat will be generating power on his rooftop in the near future,” Pandian said.

“Mainstreaming the solar rooftop practice will open up floodgates to a whole new industry in the state with a tremendous potential for employment. It is a vision of the state that each citizen becomes self-sufficient in terms of energy that is also clean,” he added.

Canal Solar Power
Gujarat has also pioneered canal-based solar power project. A 1 MW pilot project is already commissioned on Narmada branch canal near Chandrasan village of Mehsana district’s Kadi taluka.

This project was inaugurated on April 24. It is developed by Gujarat State Electricity Corporation Limited (GSECL) with support from Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Limited (SSNNL). This 1 MW pilot is installed on a 750-metre stretch of the canal and will generate 1.6 million units of clean electricity per year, as well as prevent evaporation of 90 lakh litres of water per year from the canal. Hence, the canal solar concept tackles two of our modern day challenges: energy security and water security.

Today, Gujarat has about 458 kilometres of open main canal, while the total canal length, including sub-branches is about 19,000 kilometres; the final aim of SSNNL is to construct a total of 85,000 kilometres of canal network.

Assuming a utilisation of only 10% of the existing canal network of 19,000 kilometres, it is estimated that 2,200 MW of solar power generating capacity can be installed.

This implies that 11,000 acres of land, about 2,000 crore litres of water per year can be potentially conserved.

"Gujarat is the first state not only in India but also in Asia to set up a dedicated department for climate change,” Modi said.

Apart from setting up a dedicated department for climate change, the government of Gujarat is spending a huge amount on renewable energy (more than Rs 2,000 crore per year), which the chief minister said was its contribution in the “war against global warming and climate change.”