Madhya Pradesh To Build World's Largest Floating Power Plant in Khandwa Region

The project is expected to fix the state's electricity problems and increase the power generation capacity.

500 KW solar power plant at Palli.

(Photo: The Quint)

Madhya Pradesh now boasts a project dedicated to building the largest solar power plant in the world.

Due to increased electricity problems and the objective of increasing the power generation capacity, a floating solar power plant is set to be built in the Khandwa region of Central Madhya Pradesh, which is estimated to generate 600 megawatts of power by 2022-23 as announced by officials on Wednesday, 3 August. The project’s budget is estimated to be over Rs 3,000 crore.

“We will have a PPA of 300 MW. So we have given a little bit of leverage, maybe a little more or less as per the requirement, so in total instead of 300, we are doing PPA in the first phase of 200 MW."

Renewable Energy Department Principal Secretary Sanjay Dubey.

Why Khandwa Region?

Khandwa region is home to Omkareshwar Dam, which is built on the Narmada river. It is spread over 100 square kilometre and is one of Madhya Pradesh’s hydel power plants.

Because of the solar power plant being built on water, there were concerns regarding water levels. Renewable Energy Department Principal Secretary Sanjay Dubey reassured that the water level in the dam was nominal as thus Khandwa became the optimal site for such a large project.

Khandwa region will now be the only district in Madhya Pradesh to have both a thermal power station, solar power plant, and hydel power plant.

The Future of the Project

The next phase is set to have tenders for 300 megawatt more, thus making it the world’s largest project in harnessing solar energy. The project is set to be called floating solar.

“Khandwa will become the only district in the state to have all three things including solar, hydel and thermal with over 4,000MW power to be produced from a single district," said Dubey.