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India To Build World's Largest Solar Plant

Posted by Soulskill on from the go-big-or-go-home dept.

ananyo writes "India has pledged to build the world's most powerful solar plant. With a nominal capacity of 4,000 megawatts, comparable to that of four full-size nuclear reactors, the 'ultra mega' project will be more than ten times larger than any other solar project built so far, and it will spread over 77 square kilometres of land — greater than the island of Manhattan. Six state-owned companies have formed a joint venture to execute the project, which they say can be completed in seven years at a projected cost of US$4.4 billion. The proposed location is near Sambhar Salt Lake in the northern state of Rajasthan."

2 of 253 comments (clear)

  1. Epic-scale photovoltaic by steveha · · Score: 5, Interesting

    According to TFA, this will be a huge photovoltaic plant. But as I understand it, solar thermal is more efficient, and for a large centralized project like that, I would have expected solar thermal.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...

    Does anyone know why they are going photovoltaic for this project?

    Photovoltaic certainly does have some pluses: it's simple, no moving parts. But for a project of this capacity I should think they would go for the most efficient solution.

    Plus a thermal solution with molton salt would provide a nontrivial amount of storage, for power after dark.

    So, what am I missing? Does India have lots of factories making photovoltaic cells or something?

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    lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
    1. Re:Epic-scale photovoltaic by slew · · Score: 5, Interesting

      So, what am I missing? Does India have lots of factories making photovoltaic cells or something?

      Why not Solar Thermal? As I understand it...

      1. Lack of local companies that make solar thermal equipment (aka CSP or concentrated solar power).
      2. Lack of experience with large deployment unlike PV like 50:1 in MW to date (no experience means no reference projects to predict ROI for contracting companies or investment banks)
      3. Lack of water resources for cooling (most simple solar thermal needs reliable-access to cooling water to avoid equipment malfunction).

      Of course India could deploy a minimal water solar thermal solution (e.g., air cooled or maybe Heller towers), but they have even less experience with that and most government funded programs require a minimum make-local percentage.