India builds large-scale solar plants over canals

Canal Solar Power Pilot Project in Kadi (photo Wikipedia)

As India moves to ramp up investment in solar power, it is exploring innovative places to install solar plants, including across the top of canals. This is to save on both land and water resources.

Narendra Modi, then Chief Minister of Gujarat, inaugurated a 1 Megawatt (MW) pilot project on 24 April 2012. The project is situated on the Narmada branch canal near Chandrasan village of Kadi taluka in Mehsana district, Gujarat.

Then in 2014, the U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon inaugurated a new 10 MW "canal-top" solar energy plant in Vadodara district in India's western state of Gujarat. Completed in under six months, the plant's $18.3 million cost - including 25 years of operation and maintenance - is recoverable in 13 years, according to Umesh Chandra Jain, chief engineer with Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd (SSNNL), the Gujarat government agency that administers this facility and another smaller one.

According to SSNNL, the 10 MW plant has saved on 16 hectares of land, and will potentially prevent 90 million litres of water from evaporating each year.

However, one problem is the cost. The 1 MW canal-top plant cost $2.8 million, according to SSNNL, whereas a 1 MW land-based solar plant costs $2.3 million [2015 prices]. Another problem is that PV panels are usually mounted facing southwards for optimal performance, but a canal might curve and change direction. Using only north-south stretches of water could limit the scale of canal-top plants. Also long-term exposure to environmental stresses and ingress of water into the panels could reduce their performance. Further concerns center on the potential environmental impacts of canal-top plants on their surroundings, as the risks remain unclear.

For further reading see:

India builds solar plants atop canals to save land, water. Reuters, Jan 16 2015.

Solar panels over canals may help India combat climate change. The Quint, Jan 29, 2017.