Overview
This project under the Clean Energy Cooperation with India (CECI) started in February 2016 and ended in December 2019. It focused on cooperation with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), the states (agencies) of Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Meghalaya, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, and has with the states of Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Manipur and Mizoram (in total 16 states), and with the Solar Park Developers in these states.
A solar park aims to accelerate the development of solar power generation projects in a certain location, by providing an infra structured-ready area that is well characterized, with dedicated infrastructure to reduce the expenses of development and achieve lower tariffs. Under the project the following activities were undertaken:
- Revision and development of detailed project reports for the approval of selected solar parks by MNRE and SECI across several states in India, including the north-eastern part of India;
- Grid studies to integrate solar parks and intermittent renewable energies in several Indian states;
- Revision and draft of new renewable energy and solar policies in several states;
- Draft, consultation and publication of the standard operation procedures for development, implementation, construction, operation and maintenance of solar parks, including an operation and maintenance manual and a health and safety manual for solar parks including recommendations for solar plants based on international best practices;
- Design and implementation of an online monitoring tool for solar parks available at www.mnre-solarparksindia.com and also as free downloadable apps, including general information on solar parks and news as well as dynamic data on energy, power, voltage and frequency from commissioned solar parks;
- Direct support to MNRE’s created Solar Power Park Developers (SPPD) joint working group and organization of national meetings.
- Study tours to Europe to showcase best practices in hybrid cleaning for PV plants, storage applications in national grids, tracking for PV plants, floating solar PVsolutions and grid integration of large capacities of intermittent renewable energy sources with a focus on solar.