BHEL solar energy portfolio crosses 370 MW mark

State-run power equipment maker BHEL today said its solar energy portfolio crossed the 370 MW mark in 2016-17.
BHEL ended 2016-17 with a significant solar PV portfolio of 370 MW, comprising 360 MW ground-mounted power plants and 10 MW rooftop power plants, a company statement said.
According to the statement, out of 370 MW, 170 MW of BHEL-supplied ground-mounted and 2,290 KW of rooftop power plants are already under operation at various locations.
During the year, BHEL secured orders for 131 MW of ground-mounted and about 8 MW of rooftop solar PV plants. In addition, it secured its first order for 240 solar PV based pumping stations.

BHEL is exploring deployment of single axis solar trackers and battery-based energy storage for solar power plants, it said.
BHEL has prototyped floating solar power plant and solar PV based charging stations for charging electric vehicles. It has also enhanced its EPC capacity to address large sized PV plants, it added.
BHEL is one of the very few organisations in the country that has the expertise in critical parts of the silicon value chain, viz., processing of silicon wafer to cell, processing of cell to PV module and in design, supply, installation, commissioning and O&M of ground-mounted and rooftop PV power plants and thus offers turnkey EPC solutions.

The company has enhanced its state-of-the-art manufacturing lines of solar cells to 105 MW and solar modules to 226 MW per annum. It has also set up 11.5 MWp of solar power plants in its units at Ranipet, Trichy and Hyderabad.