Ground mounted

New investors and technological complexity demand new approaches to O&M service provision, argues NovaSource’s Timo Moeller. With larger PV fleets and the ability to process the operational data of generation, pure-play O&M may continue to deliver on solar’s cost learning curve.

December 8 is the bidding deadline to set up solar power plants on uncultivable farmland for selling the generated power to the State Discoms. The ceiling tariff is fixed at INR 3.66/kWh. The plants, in sizes of 500 kW to 2 MW, shall come upon land within a 5 km radius of substations in the State.

Developers have until November 25 to bid for setting up grid-connected, ground-mounted projects in 2 MW to 10 MW sizes under the Mukhyamantri Saur Krishi Vahini Yojna. The projects shall be awarded through tariff-based competitive bidding followed by a reverse auction with ceiling tariff fixed at INR 3.10/kWh.

The ground-mount solar capacity commissioned is part of the 160 MW Jetsar solar project in the Sri Ganganagar District.

The grid-connected solar projects, to be installed at Tata Steel’s operating locations in Jharkhand and Odisha, will be a mix of rooftops, floating, and ground-mounted solar plants. 

Bids are invited to set up a cumulative 147 MW of grid-interactive decentralized solar capacity in Maharashtra. The solar power generating systems, in sizes ranging from 2 MW to 10 MW (AC), shall come up at lands within or around the various substations in the State.

The ground-mounted, captive solar plant, commissioned by Vikram Solar, is expected to generate 1.4 million units of electricity per year.

Rising efficiencies and the plummeting cost of solar modules over the past few years, recent months notwithstanding, are leading innovators toward ideas that may look unusual in the current tracker-dominated world of large-scale solar parks. Advocates of the new approaches argue that they leave traditional models looking decidedly flat by comparison.

India will require large swaths of land for the huge expansion of renewable energy capacity over the coming decades. The energy transition requires planning for proper siting of these plants and solutions like agrivoltaics, distributed energy systems, and offshore wind to reduce land-use conflicts.

Installers have until September 10 to apply for getting enlisted with Central Electronics Limited (CEL) to carry out the work for grid-connected, ground-mount solar plants. The plants are to be set up in sizes of 2 MW to 10 MW.