largest renewable energy projects in india

largest renewable energy projects in india

Of the total power produced in India, the major source is coal followed by oil & gas which are followed by renewable sources. Coal is the cheapest form of energy but has a great impact on the environment due to the pollution created by it. Renewable sources used for power generation are only about 12 % in India. The energy required is not just for enerating power but for each and every activity.

India has a total hydro energy potential of about 1.5 lakh MW of which about 20 % is installed. Small hydro plant potential is about 15000 MW and most of it is in the northern and eastern hilly regions.

The wind power potential of India is about 45,000 MW out of which capacity of 8748 MW has been installed in India till 31st March 2008. India is one of the leading countries in generating the power through wind energy. Gujarat, AP, Karnataka, MP and Rajasthan are states having more than 5000 MW potential each. These potentials could be improved if the technology of putting turbines in sea is embraced. There are wind farms on sea generating as high as 160 MW of power.

Currently, the largest solar energy project in the world is a solar thermal plant in the Mojave Desert being developed by BrightSource, with an eventual capacity of up to 900 megawatts.

Much of the country does not have an electrical grid, so one of the first applications of solar power has been for water pumping, to begin replacing India's four to five million diesel powered water pumps, each consuming about 3.5 kilowatts, and off-grid lighting.

Over the span of three years more than 16,000 solar home systems have been financed through 2,000 bank branches, particularly in rural areas of South India where the electricity grid does not yet extend

ِA 35,000 km² area of the Thar Desert has been set aside for solar power projects, sufficient to generate 700 to 2,100 gigawatts.

Announced in November 2009, the Government of India proposed to launch its Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission under the National Action Plan on Climate Change with plans to generate 1,000 MW of power by 2013 and up to 20,000 MW grid-based solar power, 2,000 MW of off-grid solar power and cover 20 million sq metres with collectors by the end of the final phase of the mission in 2020.

Sources:
en.wikipedia
chillibreeze