Advanced technology deployed at the Rs.423cr Floating Solar project
NTPC has declared ‘Commercial Operation’ of the final part capacity of 20 MW out of 100 MW Floating Solar PV Project at Ramagundam, Telangana, with effect from 00:00 hours of 1 July 2022.
With the operationalisation of 100-MW Solar PV Project at Ramagundam, total commercial operation of Floating Solar Capacity in Southern Region rose to 217 MW, said the Ministry of Power.
Earlier, NTPC declared Commercial operation of 92 MW Floating Solar at Kayamkulam (Kerala) and 25 MW Floating Solar at Simhadri (Andhra Pradesh).
Advanced technology and environment friendly features are deployed at the Rs.423 crore 100-MW Floating Solar project at Ramagundam.
Constructed by BHEL as EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) contract, the project spreads over 500 acres of its reservoir.
It is divided into 40 blocks, each having 2.5 MW. Each block consists of one floating platform and an array of 11,200 solar modules.
The floating platform consists of one Inverter, Transformer and a HT breaker.
The solar modules are placed on floaters manufactured with HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) material.
The entire floating system is being anchored through special HMPE (High Modulus Polyethylene) rope to the dead weights placed in the balancing reservoir bed. The power is being evacuated up to the existing switch yard through 33KV underground cables.
The project is unique in the sense that all the electrical equipment including inverter, transformer, HT panel and SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) are also on floating ferro cement platforms.
The anchoring of this system is bottom anchoring through dead weight concrete blocks.
From environment point of view, the most obvious advantage is minimum land requirement mostly for associated evacuation arrangements.
Further, with the presence of floating solar panels, the evaporation rate from water bodies is reduced, thus helping in water conservation.
Approximately 32.5 lakh cubic meters per year water evaporation can be avoided.
The water body underneath the solar modules helps in maintaining their ambient temperature, thereby improving their efficiency and generation. Similarly, while coal consumption of 1,65,000 tons can be avoided per year with this project, 210,000 tons per year of Co2 emission can also be avoided, said the Ministry. fiinews.com
