DVC to Execute 1776 MW Floating Solar Projects in West Bengal and Jharkhand

The Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) is planning to execute 1776 MW of floating solar projects in four of its dams in West Bengal and Jharkhand.

State-owned thermal power major Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) has announced that it will focus only on solar projects to add new capacity to its portfolio. According to a top company official, the firm has already mooted 1776 MW of floating solar projects in four of its dams in West Bengal and Jharkhand, the two states that jointly own the corporation along with the Union government.

DVC has finalised a 50-MW floating solar project at Panchet (West Bengal), the tender for which has been floated, he said.

“We will execute 1776-MW floating solar plants in the four dams of Maithon, Tilaya, Konar and Panchet. The project will be executed in three phases and the first will be of 50 MW,” DVC member secretary Prabir Kumar Mukhopadhyay told PTI. He further said that the company has zeroed in on the L1 bidder for the Panchet project and the work order will be finalised in early October.

The feasibility study of the solar projects, which are likely to utilise about 15 percent of their capacities, was carried out by the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI).

Mukhopadhyay said the corporation has large tracts of land and in the last two years, it had retired old thermal capacities to the tune of 840 MW at Bokaro, Chandrapura and Durgapur.

Recently, we had reported that the West Bengal government is planning to develop floating solar power projects in a big way as it does not require a large tract of land. The government is exploring opportunities to take up 5 MW floating solar projects on large ponds in the Bandel thermal power plant area, state power minister Sovandeb Chattopadhyay had said.

The state is also commissioning the country’s largest grid-connected floating solar project at Sagardighi thermal power plant in Murshidabad at a cost of Rs 22 crore, he said.

“We are looking for more locations for setting up floating solar projects, particularly in thermal plant areas of the West Bengal Power Development Corporation (WBPDCL). “There is scope at the Bandel unit in Hooghly. We will explore opportunities and I think it can house large projects of 5MW or even more. We want to increase our renewable portfolio,” Chattopadhyay told local press.