The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has announced that this 40-megawatt plant on 350 acres is expected to produce over 60 million kilowatt hours of electricity a year, the power required to light 70,000 Indian households.
27 April 2012: The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has announced that India’s largest photovoltaic (PV) solar power plant, located in Rajasthan, has started generating electricity. Developed by Reliance Power Ltd., the US$147.5 million project is supported from a US$48 million loan from the ADB.
According to the ADB, the 40-megawatt plant is expected to produce over 60 million kilowatt hours of electricity a year, the power required to light 70,000 Indian households. ADB says the 350 acre plant is comprised of 500,000 solar panels in one of the most arid areas of India. ADB also says it is lending US$103 million to Reliance Power to support the development of the Rajasthan Concentrating Solar Power Project, which will be located near the current plant.
According to the ADB, the Rajasthani plants are part of ADB’s goal of developing, financing, or commissioning 3,000 megawatts of solar energy generation capacity in Asia by May 2013, under the Asia Solar Energy Initiative. ADB is also supporting the development of a solar park in Charanka, Gujarat, by financing a transmission line and substation.
ADB also says it has initiated a financing facility to provide partial credit guarantees to lenders willing to fund solar power projects of up to 25 megawatts. The facility will assist in reducing risk for the private sector, and in mobilize long-term funding for solar energy development. [ADB Press Release]