BHEL commissions India’s largest floating solar plant in Andhra Pradesh
Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) has announced that it has successfully commissioned a 25 megawatt (MW) floating solar plant, India's largest such plant, at NTPC Simhadri in Andhra Pradesh.
The project is spread over an area of 100 acres. It will result in a higher yield as compared to conventional ground-mounted projects due to the cooling effect and will reduce water evaporation by providing shade to the covered area, as per the official company statement.
It added that BHEL's portfolio of floating solar projects is the largest in the country with more than 45 MW projects commissioned and about 107 MW under execution.
The statement said that the company has designed an innovative floating array to meet the anchoring requirement of the support structures without touching or loading, either the reservoir floor or the bund structure.
"This complex module array has been designed - for the first time in India - to withstand gusts of wind up to 180 km per hour. Given the coastal location of the project site that leads to severe corrosion, all the platform structures, and other equipment have been made corrosion-resistant," the release added.
The company's scope of work included design, engineering, procurement, and construction of the solar project.
