A new study under Indo the Indo-German Technical Cooperation revealed that India has great potential to grow in Innovative Solar technology as its inland water bodies hold a floating solar capacity of 206.7 GWp of electricity.
The research team has used GIS (satellite data) based data on water bodies in India (calculated in square kilometres). This idea was taken from the Copernicus Programme led by the European Space Agency (ESA).
A data set was filtered to add water bodies in an area greater than 0.015 sq. Km to a water availability of 12 months. An area greater than 0.015 sq. is needed to install a floating PV of 1 MW.
Madhya Pradesh has the highest potential with a capacity of 40,117 MWp for floating solar power plants, followed by Maharashtra with a capacity of 32,076 MWp.
Under the direction of the Indian Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, a project was launched, financed by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ), a German development agency. This project was led by Ernst and Young LLP (EY LLP) with their collaborative CSTEP and Fraunhofer ISE. This project aims to know the potential of new and innovative solar applications (NISA) and to reduce land utilization to foster the targeted expansion of solar PV applications in India.
The report suggested under a moderate scenario, India can achieve a gradual floating solar capacity of 30GW by 2040. An estimation has been assumed that installing a 1 MW floating PV system expenditure equal to a levelized cost of energy (LCOE) capital of INR 4.32 (USD 0.052) per kWh is required
The team assumed a significant cost reduction for floating solar power plants in India, a capital expenditure (capex) of 2.5% to decline annually, leading to a falling Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) from 2024 to 2040. The LCOE is expected to drop to INR 3.72/kWh by 2030 and further down to INR 2.90/kWh by 2040.
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