India is building solar canals

[visom]

Gandhinagar, April 23:

Close on heels of commencing use of wastelands in northern districts and rooftops in towns and cities, Gujarat is set to potentially use the existing 19,000 km-long network of Narmada canals across the State for setting up solar panels to generate power.

The Chief Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, will inaugurate the first of a series of this project, known as Canal Solar Power Project, when he launches a 1 megawatt (mw) pilot project, which is already commissioned, on Narmada branch canal near Chandrasan village of Kadi taluka in Mehsana district on Tuesday.

Last week, he inaugurated a 600-MW solar power project spread across 11 districts. This included a 214MW Solar Power Park, the largest such generation centre at a single location in Asia. Also, Azure Power, leading independent power producer in solar sector, announced a 2.5 MW rooftops project in Gandhinagar.

Gujarat, which invests nearly Rs 2,000 crore an year on renewable energy, has attracted investments of Rs 9,000 crore so far on solar energy projects.

The pilot project has been developed on a 750-m stretch of the canal by Gujarat State Electricity Corporation (GSECL) with support from Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd (SSNNL), which owns and maintains the canal network.
Energy, water security

The pilot project will generate 16 lakh units of clean energy per annum and also prevent evaporation of 90 lakh litres of water annually from the canal, an official told Business Line here on Monday. The concept will, therefore, tackle two of the challenges simultaneously by providing energy and water security.

The cost of per megawatt of solar power, in this case, is likely to be much less than the estimated Rs 10-11 crore, as the two banks of the canal will be used to cover the canal by installing solar power panel and the government will not have to spend much on creating basic infrastructure, including land acquisition .

Today, Gujarat has about 458 km of open Main Canal, while the total canal length, including sub-branches, is about 19,000 km at present.

When completed, the SSNNL's canal network will be about 85,000 km long.

Assuming a utilisation of only 10 per cent of the existing canal network of 19,000 km, it is estimated that 2,200 MW of solar power generating capacity can be installed by covering the canals with solar panels.

This also implies that 11,000 acres of land can be potentially conserved along with about 2,000 crore litres of water saved per annum.



Nice work guys!

 

[jbond197]

Truely brilliant!! Hats off to the brilliance of Narendra Modi and the people who worked with him on this concept!!

 

[Edevelop]

Great idea.

 

[KRAIT]

Great idea.

I wish BJP comes in power in Rajasthan and they do exactly what Modi did.

Truely brilliant!! Hats off to the brilliance of Narendra Modi and the people who worked with him on this concept!!

Story doesn't end up here. He has asked IIT students to make models of micro-turbines which can be suspended from these panels and generate electricity from the flowing water in the canal.

 

[Edevelop]

I wish BJP comes in power in Rajasthan and they do exactly what Modi did.

I was talking about the project.

I have no idea about Indian politics. Its fairly your issue and either way i won't make any comments.

 

[angeldude13]

f@@k delhi.....

i am going to gujrat.
can somebody tell me how i can learn gujrati???

 

[visom]

Story doesn't end up here. He has asked IIT students to make models of micro-turbines which can be suspended from these panels and generate electricity from the flowing water in the canal.

Hydro-electric-solar-canal? Can it make you breakfast as well?

 

[KRAIT]

I was talking about the project. I have no idea about Indian politics. Its fairly your issue and either way i won't make any comments.

Actually I want that my State should use Desert land for Solar Energy generation. I have lved in these areas. The Solar Panels can work wonders:

1. Generate Electricity from completely useless land.
2. Reduce the rate of extension of desert as such projects will affect wind taking away sand,
3. It will provide jobs to so many people for building, maintenance etc. and bring relief to Rajasthan people who suffers the most in Summers by providing uninterrupted power supply.

We already have a good canal system but it isn't extended to entire state.

Hydro-electric-solar-canal? Can it make you breakfast as well?

Yeah it can if we transfer the heat radiated back from solar panels or transferred to frying pans, we can make egg and bread breakfast.

 

[Edevelop]

Actually I want that my State should use Desert land for Solar Energy generation. I have lved in these areas. The Solar Panels can work wonders:

1. Generate Electricity from completely useless land.
2. Reduce the rate of extension of desert as such projects will affect wind taking away sand,
3. It will provide jobs to so many people for building, maintenance etc. and bring relief to Rajasthan people who suffers the most in Summers by providing uninterrupted power supply.

We already have a good canal system but it isn't extended to entire state.

It sort of sounds like our Punjab government. They are working with Germany in Cholistan for massive Solar Energy plants . Although costly, i like the fact that Solar Energy in general is great for long term. BTW do you see advantages in Solar Water Heater in our sub-continent?

 

[genmirajborgza786]

excellent project, renewable energy, along with solar,wind can generated a'lot of energy & save money

 

[KRAIT]

It sort of sounds like our Punjab government. They are working with Germany in Cholistan for massive Solar Energy plants . Although costly, i like the fact that Solar Energy in general is great for long term. BTW do you think Solar Water Heater is also good for our sub-continent ?

Yup. In my college, we had solar water heater. never had to bath with cold water in Winter.

In Rajasthan, a person has started an organization which train women to make these solar equipment, solar cooker and solar panels for electricity especially for lightening the house, is giving great results.

It has provided employment for women in villages who can learn and then earn from home. It has also reduced consumption of electricity provided by state.

My friend has opened up a Solar energy based company which offers Solar Water heater solutions to Hotels. I came to know about it when he contacted me for knowing the hotels in Sawai Madhopur, which is a famous tourist destination because of Ranthambhore National Park.

Initial cost my sound high, but the calculation he provided to me, gives ROI in some years and profit afterwards.

It should be made compulsory for commercial buildings to install solar devices.

So in this way, we can generate employment and electricity to boost our economy.

excellent project, renewable energy, along with solar,wind can generated a'lot of energy & save money

We should also consider and invest in Tidal energy as India has huge coastline and Pakistan also have good length, and it can supply electricity to cities like Karachi, which are industrial hubs, electricity to Karachi, Gwadar ports etc.

 

[veekysingh]

great.. lets see what happens on other states

 

[BDforever]

congrats to India, bangladesh need this kind of project to increase power source

 

[Yogi]

I wish BJP comes in power in Rajasthan and they do exactly what Modi did.

Sincerely, i don't have much expectations from Vasundhra either u rem the BRTS fiasco or Khasa Kothi flyover or giving permission to opening beer stalls on every corner.

We have got immense potential in Solar power, not only we r sitting on extreme hot desert which is perfectly ideal for solar projects but we also have the largest portion of world's longest canal flowing through the hottest places in our country but neither Congress nor BJP seems interested in such developmental projects...

I support BJP for national elections(basically Modi) but not for state elections(Vasundhara)...