Rajahmundry: New canal-top solar power project in West Godavari

Rajahmundry: A canal-top solar power project of one mw capacity at a cost of Rs 8 crore will be coming up on Losari Main Canal at Gollavanitippa village of Bhimavaram rural mandal in West Godavari.

The New and Renewable Energy Development Corporation of Andhra Pradesh Limited has carried out a survey on the feasibility of the project recently and sent a report to the Centre for its consent and once the project gets its consent, works are expected to begin in about two months’ time.

The Nedcap had initiated a similar project on the same canal at about 1.2 km stretch earlier with a capacity to generate one mw power per day at a cost of Rs 7.23 crore and the project was executed by BHEL and it is likely to be inaugurated in the second week of July by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.

Except for inauguration, the project has already started generating of power and people from 10 villages are getting uninterrupted and quality power from it.

Drawing inspiration from the successful execution the first canal top solar power project in the state, the Nedcap is extending the project. Accordingly, the solar panels will be fixed on canal top at a width of 10 metres by installing iron poles in the canal which is having a depth of about six feet, to support the structure at a distance of about 1.2 km.

After getting Centre's consent for execution of the project, the Nedcap will call for tenders to take up the project.

Union ministry of new and renewable energy will provide 30 per cent of the total estimated cost of the project as subsidy.

Once the solar power gets generated from the upcoming project, it will be sent to state power grid through a 33/11 kv power substation at Gollavanitippa. Nedcap sells solar power to APEPDCL at a cost of Rs 6.80 per unit.

As many as 25,000 people living in about 10 villages in Bhimavaram rural mandal will get uninterrupted and quality power.

Apart from villages, several industries and shrimp processing units and others will get such power.

West Godavari Nedcap district manager D.V. Prasad said, “Once we get Centres’s clearance for the canal top solar project, we will fix the agency and start execution of it.”