Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL), in a release, said that it has successfully commissioned India’s largest floating solar photovoltaic plant for Central PSU power generator NTPC.
Located at NTPC’s Simhadri power plant complex in Andhra Pradesh, the 25-mw floating SPV project covers an area of 100 acres, leading to saving of valuable land resource and conserving water by reducing evaporation.
“With its unique state-of-the-art design, the project is an engineering marvel, created by BHEL,” the release noted.
Apart from producing clean power, the project will also reduce water evaporation by providing shade to the covered area. It will also have a higher yield as compared to conventional ground-mounted projects due to the cooling effect.
Innovative design
BHEL has designed an innovative floating array to meet the unique requirement of anchoring the support structures without touching or loading, either the reservoir floor or the bund structure. This complex module array has been designed, for the first time in India, to withstand gusts of wind up to 180 km/hr. In view of the coastal location of the project site that leads to severe corrosion, all the platform structures and other equipment have been made corrosion resistant.
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BHEL’s capabilities
BHEL’s scope of work in the project included design, engineering, procurement and construction of the solar project and has been executed by the recently formed solar business division.
The company’s portfolio of floating SPV projects is the largest in the country with more than 45 mw projects commissioned and around 107 mw under execution.
BHEL currently has an overall EPC portfolio of more than 1.2 GW. The company offers EPC solutions for both grid-interactive and off-grid, ground mounted, rooftop, floating and canal top solar plants. In addition, BHEL also manufactures space-grade solar panels and batteries for space applications. The Central PSU engineering conglomerate has in-house capability for the entire spectrum of high quality solar PV products like solar cells, solar modules, solar inverters, and transformers, etc. the release added.
Featured photograph (source: BHEL) shows an aerial view of the 25-mw floating solar power plant at NTPC-Simhadri. Inside picture (source: youvizag.com) is a file picture of the foundation stone laying ceremony of floating solar plant, held in around August 2020.
