Known as the home of Patola , one of finest hand woven sarees produced in the world, Patan, a historic city in North Gujarat, is also powering its way ahead to become a hub of solar power generation. As many as 16 solar power companies will set up their power plants in solar park being developed at Charanka village in Patan district.
Gujarat government on Thursday launched Asia's first ever solar park at Charanka, which is barely 16 km away from the Pakistan border. The solar park, the first of its kind in the country, will house solar power generation capacities worth 500 Mw by different individual companies that will bring investments worth more than Rs 7,500 crore in the park.
Launching the solar park on Thursday, Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat said, "This will start a new chapter in the history of India's power sector. The solar park will make power accessible to poor and will help reduce emission to a great extent. The government is committed to employ local villagers at the park and will help improve skills required for the solar power sector." This park will reduce coal consumption to the tune of nine lakh tonnes and save carbon emissions worth 80 lakh tonnes, he added.
The state government has appointed Gujarat Power Corporation Ltd (GPCL) as the nodal agency for facilitation and implementation of the solar power policy- 2009.
About 16 companies have been allotted solar power generation capacities worth 176 Mw to be set up in the park over next few months. "The government has also signed power purchase agreements with 80 firms for solar power worth 932 Mw. These will come up in the due course of time. So far we are focusing on Patan, while the government is also considering other potential area for the development of solar power units in Banas Kantha and Kutchh districts," said DJ Pandian, principal secretary, department of energy and petrochemicals.
"Some of the private players will also set up their independent solar power plants, for which they will sign Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with the government at the upcoming Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors' Summit 2011. As the part of the central government's target to set up 20,000 Mw solar power generation capacities in the country by 2020, we expect Gujarat to set up around 10,000 Mw solar capacities over next 5-6 years," Pandian told Business Standard on the sidelines of the launching ceremony.
The Gujarat solar power park, which is also named Swarnim Surya Tirth by the chief minister, is spread over 2000 hectares of land. Out of this about 1000 hectares is the government waste land, while approximately 1000 hectares is private land, which will be acquired as and when required, a top government official informed. Ardeshir Contractor of Kiran Energy, one of the allottees at the park said, "We are happy to come to Gujarat as the state has focused approach for power sector. The site is appropriate for the development of solar plants. We are setting up a 20 Mw solar power plant here." Apart from this, Kiran Energy is also scouting for locations in Maharashtra and Karnataka for setting up solar power plants. Contractor did not divulge investment statistics.
Some of the other allottees that will set up power plants at the park include, GMR Gujarat Solar Power Pvt Ltd (25 MW), Sun Edison Energy India Ltd (25 MW), Alex Astral Power Pvt Ltd (25 MW), Roha Energy Pvt Ltd (25 MW), Emami Cement Ltd (10 MW), Azure Power (5 MW) among others.
