The Maharashtra State Power Generation Company Ltd. (MSPGCL) has invited bids for 450 MW of solar projects to be located in solar parks.

Here is a list of solar parks with the corresponding capacity:

• Latur solar park – 60 MW
• Yavatmal solar park- 75 MW (Mangladevi (1x25MW), Pimpri Ijara (1x25MW) and Malkhed (1x25MW)
• Kacharala solar park – 145 MW
• Wwashim solar park – 170 MW (Dudhkheda (1X60MW), Pardi Takmor (1X30MW), Saykheda (1X20MW), Babhulgaon (1X20MW), and Kanzara (1X40MW).

The detailed Request for Selection (RfS) document will be published by the first week of March 2019.

Recently,  MAHAGENCO invited an expression of interest to set up a 10 MW grid-connected floating solar project at the Upper Vaitarna reservoir in Nashik district.

In September 2018, MAHAGENCO had invited EoI to develop 100 MW of grid-connected projects at Chandrapur. The projects will be set up at the ash bund lagoon 1 and 2 near Chandrapur Super Thermal Power Station (CSTPS).

In the same month MAHAGENCO also invited EoI to set up solar component (modules and cells) manufacturing unit in the state.

In March 2018, it had tendered 50 MW of grid-connected solar PV projects to be developed in the northern region of the state. Then in June 2018, MAHAGENCO tendered 750 MW of grid-connected solar PV projects to cater to the agricultural (AG) feeder load of various substations across the state.

According to Mercom’s India Solar Project Tracker, Maharashtra has installed large-scale solar capacity of 1.3 GW to date and also has a project pipeline of 1.4 GW.

Solar parks have been favored by developers who have been facing land acquisition and evacuation infrastructure issues. An IEEFA report in 2018 reported that five of the world’s largest under-construction solar parks are located in India. Recently, the state government of Gujarat has modified its land laws relating to the development of wind and hybrid (wind and solar) parks in the state. Land has been earmarked for wind and wind+solar hybrid projects auctioned by Gujarat state agencies as well as central agencies.