Karnataka, a state in south India, has officially inaugurated the first phase of the 2GW Pavagada solar park in Tumakuru district, to be built with an investment of Rs165bn and spread across five villages.
Named by the state government as Shakti Sthala, the solar park, which broke ground in October 2016, is spread across 13,000 acres.
It has been touted to become the largest photovoltaic power plant in the world, once it is fully constructed and operating. While some of the capacity from the solar park has already been connected to the grid, the full commissioning is expected to be done by December 2018.
Development of the Pavagada solar park has been led by the Karnataka Solar Power Development (KSPDCL), a joint venture formed by Karnataka Renewable Energy Development (KREDL) and Solar Energy Corp. of India (SECI) in 2015 to implement solar projects in Karnataka.
In December 2017, Finnish energy company Fortum commissioned a 100MW solar plant as part of the Pavagada solar park, marking the first part of the solar complex to be connected to the grid.
It was followed by Tata Power Renewable Energy’s commissioning of a 100MW solar plant in December 2017 and a 50MW solar plant in January, both in the solar park. For both the solar parks, the company had signed a 25-year power purchase agreement with NTPC.