Sustainable energy developer, Welspun Renewable Energy has announced the commissioning of the largest solar project in the southern state of Karnataka, India.

The twin project totals 19MW, the first 8MW was commissioned last year, four months ahead of schedule, while the remaining 11MW took just three months to complete, coming online ten months ahead of schedule.

The solar power plants use tracker technology to increase the project’s yield and generate more power for the state of Karnataka, which suffers from frequent blackouts.

The project is located in the Chitradurga district and will supply the grid for the next 25 years with enough clean energy to power 48,000 homes.

The 9MW project won a tender in the first phase of Karnataka’s state solar auction, of which, no other entries have commissioned projects yet.

The 11MW project was awarded a tender in the second phase. Welspun is the first project to be commissioned out of 13 other developers who received state Letters of Intent (LoI) as part of the second phase.

Karnataka’s state solar policy for 2011-2016 is for 126MW of solar power to be installed during 2013-2014.

Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) has set the mandate of 0.25% of new energy procurement to come from solar farms, increasing to 3% by 2022.

According to government run Karnataka Renewable Energy Development, there are 232MW of solar allotted, and 41MW commissioned.

Vineet Mittal, Vice Chairman Welspun said the project will also contribute to the state’s energy security targets.

source: http://www.pv-tech.org / PVTech / Home> News> Article / by Lucy Woods / May 14th, 2014