The Kerala State Electricity Board Limited (KSEB) has given in principle approval to install 50 MW of floating solar power projects at Kollam district under Ultra Mega Renewable Energy Power Parks (UMREPP) program of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE). It has also agreed to take up 72 MW of wind power projects in Palakkad district by the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC).

This was decided during a recently held meeting between the senior officials of KSEB and NHPC.

The KSEB has asked the NHPC to complete the floating solar projects on a fast track mode. According to the press statement, during the meeting, other opportunities for renewable projects in the state were also explored.

The NHPC added that a detailed project report (DPR) for 50 MW of floating solar projects in the state has been prepared and 10 MW will be developed in the first phase.

A notice of inviting tender (NIT) has been issued for the 50 MW floating solar project, and presently, the project is in its “tendering stage”, the statement added. The NHPC has also prepared a report to execute 72 MW (±10%) of wind power projects at Agali site, Palakkad district in Kerala. As per the evacuation facility, 8 MW will be executed in the first phase.

Meanwhile, the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) bidding process has been initiated.

In December 2019, Mercom reported that Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) had issued a tender for conducting a detailed survey for a proposed 22 MW floating solar project in Kerala.  The project will be installed at Rajiv Gandhi Combined Cycle Power Project at Kayamkulam. The estimated cost of the project is ₹0.83 million (~$11,569). The NTPC had floated a tender for the development of this project in 2018.

Floating solar power projects are favored mostly in states where land availability for the development of utility-scale solar projects has been an issue. Of late, there have been numerous efforts across the states to utilize this concept of floating solar projects to build a clean sustainable future.

According to Mercom India’s Solar Project Tracker, the state of Kerala has ~90 MW of installed solar capacity and has around 120 MW under the development pipeline. Out of this, a cumulative capacity of 100 MW comes from floating solar projects.

Image credit: BayWa r.e.