Hyderabad: NTPC Southern Region is likely to commission about 217 MW floating solar capacity, including one of the largest floating solar power plants of 100 MW at Ramagundam, by May-June this year, a senior official said on Wednesday.
During a virtual press conference here, NTPC Regional Executive Director (South) C V Anand said: "100 MW at Ramagundam, 25 MW at Simhadri, Visakhapatnam, 92 MW at Kayamkulam, Kerala. So, these are the floating solar plants, what we have taken up right now." The Corporation would, subsequently, take forward the initiative wherever space is available, he said.
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A 230 MWac ground Solar project is also being established at Ettayapuram near Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu, an NTPC release said. "Time schedule for floating solar is somewhere this financial year beginning, say May-June, by the time this all will be commissioned," Anand said. According to him, though they are all supposed to be commissioned this year, it could not happen due to COVID-19.
Floating solar is a new concept and its main advantage is that it does not require additional land, he said. The official said NTPC is having reservoirs in its plants to supply water and the existing water reservoirs are being utilised. The NTPC release pointed out that NTPC has a significant presence in the Southern Region with a total installed capacity of 9125 MW through Coal, Gas/Liquid Fuel and Solar PV, including 1500 MW through JV NTECL Vallur.
In addition to this, 2000 MW of power from NTPC-Talcher, Kaniha Stage-II located in Odisha, is dedicated to supplying power to Southern states, it added.
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