Andhra Leads In Country With The Highest Installed Capacity of Solar Parks

The southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh has emerged as the leading state in India when it comes to installed solar energy capacity from solar parks. The Minister of New and Renewable Energy RK Singh, recently shared the data before Rajya Sabha. 

As per the minister’s written statement before the House, Andhra Pradesh has a 4,100 Megawatt (MW) allocated capacity approved under the Development of Solar Parks and Ultra Mega Solar Power Projects scheme of the MNRE. To date, it has 3,050 MW of installed solar energy capacity from its solar parks, the highest in the country. 

Andhra Pradesh has four mega functional solar parks-Ananthapuramu-I Solar Park (1,400MW), Kurnool Solar Park (1,000MW), Kadapa Solar Park (250MW), and Ananthapuramu-II Solar Park (400MW). However, its proposed Ramagiri Solar Park with 200 MW capacity is yet to start production. 

The country has approved 57 solar parks with an estimated 39.28 GW capacity. However, the total installed capacity has touched 10.11 GW, as many of the proposed solar parks are yet to start operations.  

“Government has approved 57 Solar Parks with an aggregate capacity of 39.28 GW in 13 States. Solar Parks are approved based on the availability of land. Smaller parks up to a capacity of 20 MW have also been approved under the scheme,” the minister said in his written statement before the Upper House. 

As per the details furnished by the minister after Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan has the highest of 2,901 MW of installed capacity of solar parks. It is followed by Karnataka (2000MW), Madhya Pradesh (1000MW), Gujarat (800MW), and Uttar Pradesh (240MW). 

The ministry, however, said that the government had approved the highest capacity of solar parks in Gujarat, which has around seven approved solar parks with a cumulative total of 12,025 MW. It is followed by Rajasthan (7,036MW), Uttar Pradesh (6631MW), Madhya Pradesh (6,080), and Andhra Pradesh (4,100). 

As per the scheme norms, The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) gives Central Financial Assistance (CFA) of around Rs 20 lakh per MW or 30 percent of the project cost, besides other assistance to boost the solar parks in the country. It also includes an aid of around Rs 25 lakh for each park to prepare the Detailed Project Report, besides other hand-holding support from the government.  

While Andhra is in the lead currently, it may not enjoy the top spot for too long as projects in Gujarat and Rajasthan have started moving faster now, even as Andhra has slowed down in terms of fresh capacity additions in the past 2 years, thanks partly to the price tangle the state government landed into with developers.