India’s Shining Star – CHARANKA SOLAR PARK, GUJARAT

India’s dream come true.. Asia’s Largest SOLAR PARK.

The Charanka Solar Park, a group of 17 thin-film photovoltaic (PV) power systems, on a 2,000-hectare (4,900-acre) site in the district of Patan, Northern Gujarat. The solar park is expected to save around 8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere and save around 900,000 tonnes of natural gas per year.

The largest site within the Gujarat Solar Park is being built on a 2,000-hectare (4,900-acre) plot of land near Charanka village in Patan district, northern Gujarat. This hosts about 17 different projects by different developers. On 19 April 2012, a total of 214 megawatts (287,000 hp) had been commissioned.It also became the world’s largest photovoltaic power station. When fully built out, the Charanka Solar Park will host 500 MW of solar power systems using state-of-the-art thin film technology, and should be finished by the end of 2014.The investment cost for the Charanka solar park amounts to some US$280 million.Construction began on December 3, 2010.

While Gujarat has been India’s most successful state till date in implementing solar policy (Phase I & Phase II) and India’s leading state in terms of total installed capacity of solar power plants, Gujarat has also been wonderfully able to tackle the issues of suitable land development, Grid Infrastructure facility & power transmission facilities and more by successfully developing Asia’s Largest Solar Park known as ‘Charanka Solar Park’.

Asia’s Largest Solar Park known as ‘Charanka Solar Park’

Asia’s largest solar park even larger than China’s 200 MW Golmud Solar Park, and the single largest segment of a 600 MW, nearly 3,000 acre+ solar power field with wonderful infrastructure facilities available such as Roads, Water Pipeline, Water Treatment plant, Sewage treatment plant, Helipad, Water distribution network, internal plot fencing, Land levelled, compound wall, Fire station, Telecom network, 400/220/66 KV & 66 KV Auxiliary SS, Auxiliary Power Distribution Network & much more facilities !!!! making Gujarat Solar Park one of the most preferred destination in the world for the project developers to set up solar power plants. The Gujarat solar park at charanka has bagged several national & international awards / recognition among world solar arena.

Out of the total installed solar power plants in Gujarat i.e. 820 MW+  – the Gujarat Solar Park currently is home to 16 Solar Projects with 216 MW+ of installed solar plant capacity and has emerged to be a true testing ground & laboratory for various Solar PV module technologies, Solar Inverter technologies and test of EPC execution capabilities for various stakeholders.

SOLAR PARK STATS

LOCATION : Charanka Village, Patan, Gujarat

AREA : +2000 hac. ( approx 4900 acres )

PLANT CAPACITY : +500 MW (on completion)

DEVELOPERS/COMPANIES INVOLVED : 17

PROJECT COST :  + Rs.1500 Crore (USD $280 Million)

CARBON FOOTPRINT : saves 8 million tonnes of CO2 and 9,00,000 tonnes of Natural Gas every year.

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World’s largest OTEC (Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion) power plant planned for China – China

Lockheed Martin has been getting its feet wet in the renewable energy game for some time. In the 1970s it helped build the world’s first successful floating Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) system that generated net power, and in 2009 it was awarded a contract to develop an OTEC pilot plant in Hawaii. That project has apparently been canceled but the company has now shifted its OTEC sights westward by teaming up with Hong Kong-based Reignwood Group to co-develop a pilot plant that will be built off the coast of southern China.

OTEC uses the natural difference in temperatures between the cool deep water and warm surface water to produce electricity. There are different cycle types of OTEC systems, but the prototype plant is likely to be a closed-cycle system. This sees warm surface seawater pumped through a heat exchanger to vaporize a fluid with a low boiling point, such as ammonia. This expanding vapor is used to drive a turbine to generate electricity with cold seawater then used to condense the vapor so it can be recycled through the system.

Tropical regions are considered the only viable locations for OTEC plants due to the greater temperature differential between the shallow and deep water. Unlike wind and solar power, OTEC can produce electricity around the clock, 365 days a year to supply base load power. OTEC plants also produce cold water as a by-product that can be used for air conditioning and refrigeration at locations near the plant.

Despite such advantages, and even though demonstration plants were constructed as far back as the 1880s, there are still no large-scale commercial OTEC plants in operation. This is largely due to the costs associated with locating and maintaining the facility off shore and drawing the cold water from the ocean depths. But the time may finally be right.

With the shelving of the Hawaii OTEC pilot plant, the 10 MW prototype offshore plant will be the largest planned OTEC project to date. Like the Hawaii project, which was also to be a 10 MW facility, the China OTEC plant is designed to pave the way for higher capacity plants ranging from 10 to 100 MW.

The plant is to be built off the coast of southern China to supply 100 percent of the power needed for a large-scale green resort community being developed by Reignwood Group. The new resort is planned as Reignwood’s first net-zero community, with the company also currently developing two large-scale low-carbon resorts and others planned for key locations in China.

Lockheed Martin and Reignwood will begin concept design of the sea-based prototype plant this year with construction due to begin next year. Once it is up and running, the two companies plan to use the knowledge and experience gained over the course of the project to improve the design of additional commercial-scale plants.

The companies claim each 100 MW OTEC facility could produce the same amount of energy in a year as 1.3 million barrels of oil and decrease carbon emissions by half a million tons. Assuming oil trading at near US$100 a barrel, they estimate fuel savings from one plant could exceed $130 million a year.

The video below from Lockheed Martin describes the OTEC process.