World’s largest solar photovoltaic plant of 750 MW to be built in Rewa district of Madhya Pradesh

The Madhya Pradesh Cabinet in the last week of April 2015 gave its approval to build 750 megawatt (MW) solar photovoltaic (SPV) plant at Gurh tehsil in Rewa district. The plant, to be developed in three phases of 250 MW, once completed will become the world’s largest solar power plant.

At present, the largest SPV plant is the Topaz Solar Farm (550 MW) in California’s San Luis Obispo county, US, which was commissioned in 2014

Characteristic Feature of SPV plant

• The plant will use photovoltaic (PV) technology to generate electricity from the sun and is estimated to be completed by March 2017 at an estimated cost of 4500 crore rupees.
• The loan for it will be provided by World Bank and New and Renewable Energy Department of Madhya Pradesh government will provide land for the project. The state government is also on the lookout for private land.
• The plant will provide power at a price as low as 5.50 rupees per unit as against the 6.86 rupees per unit, which is the benchmark for levelised tariff (tariff realised over the span of the project)  of SPV for 2015-16 announced by Central Electricity Regulatory Commission.
• The project is being set up under the scheme for development of solar parks and ultra mega solar power projects. The PV modules for the plant would be sourced from the domestic market which is not mandatory.
• The Power Grid Corporation of India Limited will construct the grid connections and transmission lines of the solar plant.
• Once commissioned, Jabalpur-based Madhya Pradesh Power Management Company Limited will buy 40 per cent of power.

The solar project in Rewa would be one of the first of the 25 solar parks planned in the country. There is a proposal to set up another 750 MW plant in Rewa.

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