Bhadla Solar Park is the

largest Large means of great size. Large may also refer to: Mathematics * Arbitrarily large, a phrase in mathematics * Large cardinal, a property of certain transfinite numbers * Large category, a category with a proper class of objects and morphisms (o ...

solar park A photovoltaic power station, also known as a solar park, solar farm, or solar power plant, is a large-scale grid-connected photovoltaic power system (PV system) designed for the supply of merchant power. They are different from most building- ...

in the world as of 2022 and is spread over a total area of in Bhadla,

Phalodi tehsil Phalodi tehsil is a tehsil in Jodhpur District of Rajasthan state in western India. Headquarters for the tehsil is the town of Phalodi. Geography Phalodi tehsil is the second northernmost of the eleven tehsils in Jodhpur District. It borders ...

Jodhpur district Jodhpur District is a district in the State of Rajasthan in western India. The city of Jodhpur is the administrative headquarters of the district. As of the 2011 census, it is the second highest populated district of Rajasthan (out of 33), af ...

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. The park has a total capacity of 2245 MW. The park had witnessed the lowest bid for solar power in India as of December 2020 at per kilowatt-hour.

Location

Officially recognized as a sandy, dry, and arid region with an area of about , Bhadla is located about north of

Jodhpur Jodhpur (; ) is the second-largest city in the Indian state of Rajasthan and officially the second metropolitan city of the state. It was formerly the seat of the princely state of Jodhpur State. Jodhpur was historically the capital of the Ki ...

and about west of the state capital

Jaipur Jaipur (; Hindi Language, Hindi: ''Jayapura''), formerly Jeypore, is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Rajasthan. , the city had a pop ...

. The region has been described as "almost unlivable" due to its climate. Normal temperatures in Bhadla hover between , with hot winds and sand storms occurring frequently. The nearest habitation to Bhadla is the village of Bap located about away, and the closest urban areaa

tehsil A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administr ...

town called Phalodiis situated away. PV power plant cluster near Bhadla (India)

Auctions

Phase I

In the first phase,

NTPC Limited NTPC Limited, formerly known as National Thermal Power Corporation Limited, is an Indian central public sector undertaking under the ownership of the Ministry of Power, Government of India which is engaged in generation of electricity an ...

auctioned 420 MW of capacity split into 6 packages of 70 MW each. The Finnish company

Fortum Fortum Oyj is a Finnish state-owned energy company located in Espoo, Finland. In addition to Finland, it focuses on Germany and other countries in Central Europe, Great Britain, Russia and the Nordic region. Fortum operates power plants, inc ...

quoted the lowest tariff of 4.34/kW⋅h. Rising Sun Energy and

Solairedirect Solairedirect is a global renewable energy company focused on solar power. Headquartered in Paris, the company is the main solar power producer in France and has also international operations in the US, Chile, India and South Africa. In develops ...

won 2 packages, each quoting a price of 4.35/kW⋅h. Yarrow Infrastructure won the remaining package quoting a price of 4.36/kW⋅h. In December 2016,

signed an agreement with Ecoppia, a PV panel cleaning solutions developer, to provide automated cleaning solutions to the project. Due to the park's location in a desert region, it is prone to dust storms. Solairedirect secured a loan of from

IDBI Bank The IDBI Bank Limited (IDBI Bank or IDBI) is a development finance institution under the ownership of Life Insurance Corporation of India and Government of India. It was established in 1964 as Industrial Development Bank of India, a developmen ...

in February 2017 to help finance the project.

Phase II

The

Solar Energy Corporation of India Solar may refer to: Astronomy * Of or relating to the Sun ** Solar telescope, a special purpose telescope used to observe the Sun ** A device that utilizes solar energy (e.g. "solar panels") ** Solar calendar, a calendar whose dates indicate t ...

(SECI) auctioned 250 MW capacity in the second phase for which 27 firms submitted bids.

Phase III

SECI auctioned 500 MW capacity in the third phase on 11 May 2017. ACME won 200 MW at a price of per kW⋅h. SBG was awarded the remaining 300 MW at a price of . ACME commissioned the 200 MW capacity in September 2018. SECI also actioned 500 MW for on December 22, 2017. The Hero Future Energies has been awarded 300 MW and

SoftBank Group is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. The Group primarily invests in companies operating in technology, energy, and financial sectors. It also runs the ...

200 MW.

Phase IV

SECI auctioned 250 MW capacity in the fourth phase on 9 May 2017.

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

's Phelan Energy Group and Avaada Power were awarded 50 MW and 100 MW of capacity, respectively. Their bids of 2.62 per kilowatt-hour were the lowest tariffs for any solar power project in India. It was also lower than NTPC's average coal power tariff of 3.20 per kilowatt-hour. SBG Cleantech, a consortium of Softbank Group,

Airtel Bharti Airtel Limited, commonly known as (d/b/a) Airtel, is an Indian multinational telecommunications services company based in New Delhi. It operates in 18 countries across South Asia and Africa, as well as the Channel Islands. Current ...

and

Foxconn Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., trading as Hon Hai Technology Group in China and Taiwan and Foxconn internationally, is a Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturer established in 1974 with headquarters in Tucheng, New ...

, was awarded the remaining 100 MW capacity at a rate of 2.63/kW⋅h. SECI tendered bids for the remaining 750 MW capacity in June 2017. In this way, the entire solar park will be completed by December 2018, and with 2055 MW installed capacity, it will be the one of the world's largest solar parks.

Commissioning

On 22 February 2017, NTPC announced that it had commissioned 115 MW of capacity at the park. An additional 45 MW of capacity was commissioned on 8 March, and 25 MW on 18 March. NTPC announced the commissioning of 20 MW capacity at the park on 23 March, and 55 MW on 25 March 2017, taking the total commissioned capacity of the Bhadla park to 260 MW. In September 2018, 1365 MW had been commissioned. After its full capacity became operational, the park became the largest fully commissioned PV project in the world at 2,245 MW, with its investment rising to .

References

External links

SOLAR PARK, BHADLA, PHASE-IIWorld's largest solar power plant
{{SPIN Solar power stations in Rajasthan Jodhpur district Photovoltaic power stations in India 2017 establishments in Rajasthan Energy infrastructure completed in 2017 Thar Desert