The Kurnool Ultra Mega Solar Park of 1,000 MW capacity is on the cusp of completion. The 1 GW Kurnool Ultra Mega Solar park will replace the 648 MW Kamuthi Solar Park as the largest solar installation at a single location, once complete.

Mercom previously reported that the Kurnool Ultra Mega Solar Park will be complete by April 2017.

An official at Andhra Pradesh Solar Power Corporation Private Limited (APSPCPL) commented, “We are waiting for Adani to commission their 50 MW project. All other firms have completed the projects awarded to them.” Once Adani completes commissioning, the entire 1 GW will be on grid, added the APSPCL official.

The delay has been attributed to developers by APSPCL. When contacted an Adani executive stated, “In a solar park, land should be allocated at the same time to all the developers as land allocation comes under the scope of implementing agency, APSPCL in this case. However, the APSPCL provided us clear land way past the date at which it was to be allocated, and this has led to a delay on our part.” We have received an extension from NTPC through the end of July to complete the project, added the Adani executive.

An executive at Azure said, “The 100 MW is complete and on-grid., the firm will issue a press release stating the same by the end of the day.”

With the commissioning of 100 MW by Azure Power, the total installed capacity in Kurnool Ultra Mega Solar Park comes to 950 MW.

“Greenko commissioned 500 MW of projects in April and SBG Cleantech commissioned its projects by the end of March 2017,” added the APSPCL official.

According to Mercom’s India Solar Project Tracker, the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) had conducted the first e-reverse auction for the Kurnool Park and SunEdison (now Greenko) won the bid to develop 500 MW in November 2015 by quoting Rs.4.63 (~$0.071)/kWh – lowest quoted tariff at that time. In December 2015, SBG Cleantech won a bid to develop 350 MW by quoting Rs.4.63 (~$0.071)/kWh; Azure Power won a bid to develop 100 MW by quoting Rs.5.12 (~$0.079)/kWh; and Adani won a bid to develop 50 MW by quoting Rs.5.13 (~$0.079)/kWh. The Azure and Adani bids were under the Domestic Content Requirement (DCR) category.

Updated commissioning figure of 950 MW.

Image Credit: Rays Power Infra