The State Government is planning a 4,000-acre solar park in Bijapur district.
The solar park, which will come up in Mannur, will be similar to the solar farm at Charanka in Gujarat.
The Government has set a target of 18 months to complete the solar farm and will start with small capacities of 80-100 MW, and gradually increase capacity, Mr N.S. Prasanna Kumar, Managing Director of Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Ltd (KREDL), told
“The idea of having a solar park is to see that private players will be facilitated in implementation of projects – basic infrastructure like power evacuation support, water and roads will be provided,” Mr Kumar said.
He, however, declined to reveal the investment the Government was going to make.
Private developers
KREDL is the state nodal agency for promoting renewable energy in the State, and will be involved in allotting projects at the park and facilitate implementation of projects.
Most projects that will come up there would be of private developers, Mr Kumar said, adding that the park would only have solar photovoltaic projects.
KREDL recently announced the winners of the bids for the first phase of the Karnataka Solar Mission, and Mr Kumar said that some of these projects would come up in the park.
“We have also received about 500 MW worth applications to set up projects under the REC (Renewable Energy Certificates) mechanism and some of these projects will also come up in the park,” Mr Kumar added.
KREDL had called for applications under the REC scheme, where producers of renewable energy who opt out of the preferential feed-in tariff, get tradable certificates.
The certificates could be bought by specified ‘obligated entities' – who are either specified consumers or electricity distribution companies.
Under the Karnataka Renewable Energy Policy 2009-14, the State plans to add about 4,300 MW and proposes to bring in Rs 23,890 crore of investments.