Tapping the potential of the solar energy through leverage advantage of Vankal Solar Park in Mizoram
- RE Society of India RESI
- Mar 16, 2023
- 6 min read
Updated: Mar 19, 2023
The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission is a major initiative of the Government of India with active participation from States to promote ecologically sustainable growth while addressing India’s energy security challenge. It is a major contribution by India in the global effort to meet the challenges of climate change. India, with its large population and rapidly growing economy, needs access to clean, cheap and reliable sources of energy. India lies in the high solar insolation region, with most of the country receiving about 300 days of sunshine per year with annual mean daily global solar radiation in the range of 4-6kWh/m2 /day.
The State Government of Mizoram has adopted its own solar policy, titled "Solar Power Policy of Mizoram - 2017," in order to capitalise on the burgeoning solar energy revolution and gain an edge from the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) and Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) launched by the Government of India. The policy's provisions are designed to pave the way for future solar power providers to efficiently and productively utilise solar energy. The government of Mizoram recognises the state's abundant potential for solar power generation and is actively encouraging the development of solar energy-based power projects to increase electricity generation capacity across the region. Seeing the potential, the Indian government wants to increase North Eastern States including Mizoram's access to electricity by encouraging the development of solar parks. The state of Mizoram has adopted the "Solar Power Policy of Mizoram 2017" to facilitate this goal's realisation. The Solar Policy has tasked the Zoram Energy Development Agency (ZEDA) with coordinating its implementation.
As a result, the Government of Mizoram able to achieve its goal of providing affordable, consistent electricity to the state's residents while also ensuring a long-term, sustainable fuel mix through a recently established Solar Park at Vankal with a capacity of 20 MW under the Government of India’s Solar Park Scheme. The State Government has therefore designated the Power & Electricity Department (P&ED), Government of Mizoram as the body responsible for carrying out Solar Park in Vankal, Champhai District, Khawzawl RD Block of Mizoram, which is around 141 km from Aizawl.
The deliberation of solar power projects can be implemented extensively in the country; however, scattered solar power projects lead to higher project cost per MW and higher transmission losses. Individual small capacity projects incur significant expenses in site development, drawing separate transmission lines to the nearest substation, procuring water and in creation of other necessary infrastructure. The developers confront a plethora of lengthy processes to acquire permissions for the acquisition of land, to change land use and various other discouragements delaying the project.
Solar Parks are solar power generation development zones offering developers a location well characterized with access to solar power generation infrastructure and amenities, where project risks and required approvals are minimized i.e. the solar park acts as a hub for the construction of solar power plants, giving developers easy access to necessary utilities and reducing their overall exposure to risk.
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India aims to reach its goal of 40,000 MW of solar power installed capacity by establishing at least 50 Solar Parks with capacities of 500 MW or more through this project. If a park is to be developed, it should have a capacity of 500 MW or more. Yet smaller parks in the Himalayas and other mountainous States, where it may be impossible to purchase continuous territory due to the terrain, will also be considered.
States and territories with a severe lack of land suitable for anything other than agriculture may want to think about creating smaller parks. It would create a lot of direct and indirect jobs in solar and associated industries like glass, metals, heavy industrial equipment, etc., and help ensure the country's long-term energy security by reducing carbon emissions and the country's carbon footprint. The solar parks' ability to put otherwise useless land to good use will help spur growth in the areas around them.
Under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission, the Indian Government’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) promotes states to build Solar Parks and invite commercial companies to put up solar power plants.
A large solar park, will have the advantage of being able to house a larger number of developers who will share a common sub-station and evacuation park. The Solar Power Park Developer (SPPD), as the solar park's implementation agency can be selected from the available 8 different modes under the Solar Park Scheme of MNRE.
The capacity of 20 MW was approved by MNRE in Oct 2017 to P&ED for setting of Solar Park at Vankal. The land of over 150 acres has been acquired and declared as reserved for Solar Park by Govt. of Mizoram. The tender for setting of solar projects inside the park was issued in Dec 2019, letter of award issued in April 2020 to M/s Sukhbir Agro Energy Ltd (15 MW) & M/s ATA Renewables Pvt Ltd (5 MW), and the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) was signed in Nov 2020 @3.94/kWh for 20 MW. A per the PPA, the park was supposed to be completed by Nov 2021. However, the work for development of solar park and solar projects inside solar parks got delayed due delay in approval of PPA from the Government and also due to world-wide Covid-19 pandemic.
The park infrastructure activities like development of road, water network, internal pooling station and other required infrastructure was developed by P&ED and completed during the Sept 2021. Further, the solar projects inside the park has been commissioned recently in this week in March 2023 and operational with fully capacity of 20 MW (28 MW DC).
The most significant obstacle that the developer needed to overcome was finding a location within the plant where they could simply install the module mounting structure and still meet the targeted capacity of the plant in accordance with the PPA. This facility makes use of high-efficiency mono-PERC modules and a high-wattage string inverter in its construction. In addition, a containerized solution has been utilised for the LT/HT switchgear room to ensure that the temperature and ingress protection are at their optimum levels.
A solar power plant has been commissioned with the challenges in state's steep, sloping landscape by the project developers. Due to the narrow strips of land divided by gorges and steep valleys, the solar arrays were put out as fingers connected by a perimeter road and a 33kV transmission line to allow for the evacuation of power. Yet, the site's undulating topography makes it challenging to position solar panels such that they receive optimal sunlight. The inclination of the land necessitated a change in the orientation and angle of the PV modules. To optimise module installation and successfully reduce shade, the plant was designed in the shape of a hand palm, with 15 fingers connected by a perimeter road and a 33kV transmission line for electricity evacuation.
Power from the park's solar project, which is expected to generate 36949 MWh (or 818,427 MWh in entire life of project) yearly, is now being transmitted into the grid at a voltage level of 132kV, which was established by the P&ED and utilized by the Mizoram. There will be a positive social impact because the project will provide between 150 -200 full- and part-time jobs for persons with varying levels of education and experience during its lifetime. The solar park will have a net positive environmental impact since it will prevent the release of 6,711,022 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere over the course of the project's 25-year lifespan through the use of carbon capture and storage technology.
The addition of Vankal's 20 MW brings the total installed capacity of the country's 18 Solar Parks operating under the Solar Park Program to 10,137 MW. Besides the park in Mizoram, the figure displays the major large-scale solar parks commissioned in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh.
A unique budgetary allocation of 10% is being made under several renewable energy initiatives for deployment of grid & off-grid Solar Energy Systems, Wind Energy Systems, Small Hydro Projects, and Bio-gas plants, among others, in the entire North Eastern region by the Government of India. It is predicted that the North Eastern area has a renewable energy potential of roughly 65,837 MW from sources like sun, small hydro, and bio-energy. Mizoram's 53 MW contributes to the total 578 MW installed across the NER states.
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