Trust the sun

Suresh Dharur in Kurnool

FROM a distance, the site resembles a scene straight out of a Hollywood sci-fi movie. As you get closer, you are awe-struck by unending rows of blue glass panels stretched out as far as the eye can see. It seems as if the arid stretch of land in the perennially drought-prone Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh has suddenly come to life with the buzz of construction around. This is where the world’s largest single-location solar power facility is coming up.  

The Kurnool Ultra Mega Solar Park to generate 1,000 MW of power is nearing completion. Preparations are underway for its formal inauguration by Prime Minister Narendra Modi later this month. Spread over 5,900 acres between Gani and Sekunala villages off the Kurnool-Nandyal state highway, the solar park is expected to transform the backward region by generating job opportunities for the local youth, besides improving the power supply in the state.

The task of installing over 40 lakh solar panels — about 4,000 for each MW — has been completed in a record time of six months. Over 5,000 engineers have been working on site since November last year. All panels are fixed facing south to north at 13 degrees, for the optimum capture of the power of the sun.

This solar park is bigger than the two comparable projects in the world — Adani Power’s 648-MW plant at Kamuthi in Tamil Nadu and Topaz Solar Farm in California with a capacity of 550 MW.

Land hassles 

At a time when land acquisition for mega projects is a tricky affair in other states, the farmers of the two villages — Gani and Sekunala—had offered their lands for the park. A major chunk of the 5,900 acres is the government land while over 2,200 acres have been acquired from private parties under the Land Acquisition Act of 2013. However, there are allegations of delay in payment of the promised compensation to the farmers.

“The revenue officials had promised us Rs 6.5 lakh per acre. The district collector had assured that the payments would be done in two weeks. But, some of us are yet to receive the compensation,” said M Mallaiah of Sekunala village whose 5 acre was acquired for the project.

The land oustees held a protest last month demanding clearance of the dues and threatened to step up the agitation, if the government failed to respond. However, they subsequently called off the stir after the government came up with a time-bound schedule for payment of compensation. “We have already released Rs 8 crore to the district collector for and the remaining amount would be disbursed by the month-end,” said Ajay Jain, energy secretary, AP.         

Helping hands

Four private power developers, under the supervision of AP Solar Power Development Corporation Limited, are involved in the execution of the Rs 7,000-crore project. They are: Greenko (500 MW), Japan’s Softbank Energy (350 MW), Azure Power (100 MW) and Prayatna Developers of Adani Group with 50 MW. Over a period of time, the park will produce 2,600 million units of power per annum. The Greenko Group has already started the production.

“We had started the works in November last year and commissioned our part of the project in March this year. Such projects normally take two years, but we have completed it in a record time,” said Ch Srinivas Rao, project director, Greenko.

“The Kurnool project operated by Greenko is the largest single-location project in the world built in a shortest period (six months). It will deliver low-cost fixed- priced energy for 25 years to the nation, on par or cheaper than fossil fuel options,” says Mahesh Kolli, the company founder.

By and large, there is no maintenance required for the solar panels. Regular cleaning is necessary for the optimum use of sun rays. About 3,000 resident engineers are on the site to keep a round-the-clock watch over the park.

How funding came

National Thermal Power Corporation had floated the notification-inviting-tender in April 2015 and has, through reverse auction, shortlisted the four developers who quoted a tariff of Rs 4.63 per unit.

While the private developers had invested Rs 6,000 crore, the AP Government contributed Rs 1,000 crore through AP Solar Power Corporation Limited. A sum of Rs 50 crore (Rs 5 lakh per MW) has been collected from the developers for creating social infrastructure and Rs 8 crore has already been disbursed.

“The Kurnool park is a major milestone in our journey towards achieving the Centre’s objective of adding 175 Giga Watts (1,00,000 MW of solar, 60,000 MW wind and 15,000 MW of biomass and other such sources) of renewable energy by 2022,” Ajay Jain said.

The target set by the state stands at 10,000 MW of solar and 8,000 MW of wind energy during the period.