The Greater Visakhapatnam Smart City Corporation Limited (GVSCCL) has commissioned a 2 MW grid-connected floating solar photovoltaic (PV) project.

The floating solar PV project is installed atop the Mudasarlova reservoir in Visakhapatnam. Chandrababu Naidu, the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, inaugurated the project.

When contacted, a GVSCCL official confirmed the commissioning of the project. The official also added that the floating solar project covers a surface area of 20 acres in the reservoir.

The official further added that the cost of the entire project was about ₹120 million (~$1.71 million) and includes the extra cost of desilting of the reservoir bed prior to construction of the floating solar project.

GVSCCL had tendered the project back in July 2017. The project development work commenced in April 2018.

This is now the largest operational floating solar PV project in India, displacing the 500kW floating solar project that was commissioned in Kerala in December 2017.

Floating solar PV is slowly gaining traction in the country. In the past few months, numerous tenders for small-capacity floating solar PV projects have been issued. Here are a few examples:

Recently, the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) invited an Expression of Interest (EoI) to develop 1,000 MW of floating solar projects.

Previously, the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) increased the capacity of recently tendered floating solar projects in the state of Uttar Pradesh from 100 MW to 150 MW.

Lakshadweep Energy Development Agency (LEDA) has also invited EOIs from developers and contractors to develop 10 MW of floating solar PV projects in Lakshadweep.

Recently, Mercom also reported that the Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) invited EOIs from companies with experience of installing floating solar power projects or those which have the technology to install a 5 MW, a large-scale floating solar project in the Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Mercom previously reported that the West Bengal Power Development Corporation Limited (WBPDCL) successfully auctioned a 5 MW, grid-connected floating solar PV project to be developed in the district of Murshidabad in West Bengal.