Close on heels of commencing use of wastelands in
northern districts and rooftops in towns and cities, Gujarat is set to
potentially use the existing 19,000 km-long network of Narmada canals
across the State for setting up solar panels to generate power.
The
Chief Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, will inaugurate the first of a series
of this project, known as Canal Solar Power Project, when he launches a
1 megawatt (mw) pilot project, which is already commissioned, on
Narmada branch canal near Chandrasan village of Kadi taluka in Mehsana
district on Tuesday.
Last week, he inaugurated a
600-MW solar power project spread across 11 districts. This included a
214MW Solar Power Park, the largest such generation centre at a single
location in Asia. Also, Azure Power, leading independent power producer
in solar sector, announced a 2.5 MW rooftops project in Gandhinagar.
Gujarat,
which invests nearly Rs 2,000 crore an year on renewable energy, has
attracted investments of Rs 9,000 crore so far on solar energy projects.
The
pilot project has been developed on a 750-m stretch of the canal by
Gujarat State Electricity Corporation (GSECL) with support from Sardar
Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd (SSNNL), which owns and maintains the canal
network.
Energy, water security
The pilot
project will generate 16 lakh units of clean energy per annum and also
prevent evaporation of 90 lakh litres of water annually from the canal,
an official told Business Line here on Monday. The concept will,
therefore, tackle two of the challenges simultaneously by providing
energy and water security.
The cost of per megawatt
of solar power, in this case, is likely to be much less than the
estimated Rs 10-11 crore, as the two banks of the canal will be used to
cover the canal by installing solar power panel and the government will
not have to spend much on creating basic infrastructure, including land
acquisition .
Today, Gujarat has about 458 km of open
Main Canal, while the total canal length, including sub-branches, is
about 19,000 km at present.
When completed, the SSNNL's canal network will be about 85,000 km long.
Assuming
a utilisation of only 10 per cent of the existing canal network of
19,000 km, it is estimated that 2,200 MW of solar power generating
capacity can be installed by covering the canals with solar panels.
This
also implies that 11,000 acres of land can be potentially conserved
along with about 2,000 crore litres of water saved per annum.
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