Current Trends in Technology and Science

ISSN : 2275-0535. Volume : II, Issue : I

Rajasthan Solar Park – An Initiative Towards Empowering

Nation
1
Hemant Kumar, 2Upasna Arora, 3Ruchika Jain
M.Tech Scholars, Department of Electrical Engineering, University College of Engineering, Rajasthan Technical
University, Kota
1
E-mail: [email protected]
2
E-mail: [email protected]
3
E-mail: [email protected]
4
A K Sharma
Associate Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, University College of Engineering, Rajasthan Technical
University, Kota
4
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract - Solar power is attractive because it is abundant SEZ Special Economic Zone
RRVPNL Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Limited
and offers a solution to fossil fuel emissions and global
climate change. Solar energy is the largest exploitable Weights & Measures:
renewal resource as more energy from sunlight strikes Bigha 1618 sq m in western Rajasthan
Earth in 1 hour than all of the energy consumed by ha. (Hectare) 10,000 sq m
humans in an entire year. The average intensity of solar
radiation received over India is 200 MW/km square 1. INTRODUCTION
(megawatt per kilometer square) with 250–325 sunny days
in a year. Solar energy intensity varies geographically in Rajasthan has about 2,08,110 km2 of desert land, which is
India, but Western Rajasthan receives the highest annual 60% of the total area of the state. Rajasthan receives solar
radiation of 6.0-7.0 kWh/m2. As the area has low rainfall,
radiation energy. A dedicated 400 kV network with
associated 220 & 132 kV strong transmission network in about 325 days have good sunshine in a year. [8]
Barmer, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Bikaner area was created.
Indeed, Rajasthan is the only State in India which has
established a strong power evacuation network in desert
area. . Hence current status, various issues, regulatory
policies and incentives for promotion of Solar PV Power
Parks in Rajasthan along with a case study of Solar Park
Project at Village Bhadla of Jodhpur district which
includes site report and geotechnical investigation for
Photovoltaic Solar Power Plant has been discussed in this
paper.

Keywords - RSP, Bhadla-Jodhpur District, PV Solar

Power, Renewable Energy.

Abbreviations:
ADI Asian Development Bank
CSP Concentrated Solar Power
EMP Environment Management Plan
GoI Government of India
GoR Government of Rajasthan Fig. 1. Solar Power Potential in Rajasthan(CSP)
GBI Generation Based Incentive Scheme
GSS Grid Sub-Station Rajasthan faces two unique challenges in terms of power
IIT Indian Institute of Technology
MoU Memorandum of Understanding generation from the conventional sources. On the one hand,
PV Photovoltaic Rajasthan does not have many hydropower projects due to
R&D Research & Development non-availability of large rivers. On the other, because coal
RSP Rajasthan Solar Park needs to be transported from far off areas of the country, the
RERC(L) Rajasthan Electricity Regulatory Commission (Ltd).
RPO Renewable Procurement Obligation transportation alone contributes to 50% cost of energy
RREC Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corporation production. [2]
RIICO Raj. State Indus. Dev. and Investment Corporation
Copyright © 2012 CTTS.IN, All right reserved
178
 Current Trends in Technology and Science
ISSN : 2275-0535. Volume : II, Issue : I

In view of above, even before the creation of National Solar Fig. 2. Solar Power Potential (PV)
Mission, Govt. of Rajasthan has taken an initiative in 2008
and approved two Solar Projects each of 5 MW under Government of Rajasthan on April 19, 2011 issued Rajasthan
Generation Based Incentive Scheme (GBI). Solar Energy Policy, 2011 to promote the Solar Energy. The
main objectives of this policy includes leverage maximum
Table (1).Max. Potential Sites For Concentrated Solar Power benefit from National Solar Mission, to develop Solar Power
Rajasthan Plants for meeting RPO of Rajasthan, to develop Solar Power
Plants for meeting RPO of other States, to promote off-grid
District Max. Solar Potential applications of solar energy and the development of solar
KWh/m2 parks. [3, 8]
Jodhpur 5.89 In coherence with the Rajasthan Solar policy, Rajasthan state
Jaisalmer 5.58 will develop Solar Parks of more than 1000 MW capacity in
Barmer 5.88 Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Bikaner, Barmer and districts in various
Jalore 5.81 stages. To begin with, solar park at Jodhpur has been initiated.
Baran 5.79 Clinton Foundation signed a memorandum of understanding
Chittorgarh 5.74 (MoU) with the Government of Rajasthan in January 2010 for
Ajmer 5.74 setting up 3000 MW Solar Parks. Rajasthan solar Park Private
Bikaner 5.73 Ltd (RSP Ltd), a subsidiary company of RREC will formulate
policy and rules for land allotment, selection and qualification
Dungerpur 5.63
Source: RREC of firms, grid connectivity and infrastructure plans, sharing of
To provide encouragement in solar sector, Rajasthan development cost by the developers and management of solar
Electricity Regulatory Commission (RERC) issued orders on parks. About 10,000 ha government owned land has already
2nd April 2008, first time in India, imposing solar specific been identified at Bhadla in Jodhpur district. Solar Park at
renewable procurement obligation (RPO) for Discom in Bhadla has 5000 ha in zone I and 2500 ha in zone II and III
Rajasthan. To meet out RPO requirement, the State each. Survey and soil testing work of 3000 ha of Zone I has
Government approved Solar Projects of 11 private sector already been completed. The survey and soil testing of
developers for setting up of 66 MW capacity utilizing all additional 5000 ha of solar park is in process. Consultant
available technologies in solar photovoltaic and concentrated appointed by Asian Development Bank (ADI) has already
solar thermal. After announcement of Jawaharlal Nehru prepared Master plan of Solar Park at Bhadla, Jodhpur. [7, 8]
National Solar Mission, Government of Rajasthan permitted
these proposals to be migrated to the National Solar Mission.
The Seven solar Power plants, each of 5 MW, having
Photovoltaic technology are already commissioned under the
migration scheme of National Solar Mission, while the Solar
Thermal Plants of 30 MW are under implementation in which
solar power plant at Bhadla is one of them. [8]

Fig. 3. Bhadla Village @ Jodhpur District.

2. RAJASTHAN SOLAR PARK- THE CONCEPT

The Rajasthan’s Bhadla Solar Park will be developed by
Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corporation Limited (RREC),
Government of Rajasthan (GoR) similar to a special economic
zone (SEZ) dedicated for generation of power through solar
energy. The park will have adjoining manufacturing area for
solar energy components being developed by Rajasthan State
Industrial Development and Investment Corporation (RIICO).
The Solar Park will hold a number of solar power plants each
developed by separate or the same groups/ promoters. The

Copyright © 2012 CTTS.IN, All right reserved

179
 Current Trends in Technology and Science
ISSN : 2275-0535. Volume : II, Issue : I

concept aims to accelerate the development of Solar power

generation projects by providing developers with a developed
area that has facilitation of the permissions process; is well
characterized, has proper infrastructure which minimizes the
risk of the project development.[1]
The solar park site will be enabled by the provision of
necessary infrastructure build-up in the form of developed
land, water access, gas availability and access infrastructure,
power evacuation/transmission system, which will be provided
to individual developers through a lease arrangement. The
state and national government will conduct the necessary
evaluation of the environmental and social impacts of utility-
scale solar deployment before allocating the land to
prospective developers, allowing developers to save time and
money often spent on development work for multiple,
individual plants in different locations. [1]
The RREC, GoR will be the nodal agency for the development
of the solar parks in Rajasthan. In addition, Rajasthan State Fig. 4. Layout Plot for STP at Bhadla Village.
Industrial Development and Investment Corporation Limited
(RIICO), an Industrial catalyst of Rajasthan will develop an Table (2). Latitude Longitude And Area Of Alloted Plot Phase
Industrial area to facilitate the Industrial production of solar
equipment in the area, and Indian Institute of Technology Phase Latitute Longitude Area
(IIT) Rajasthan, Jodhpur will provide all Research and (Ha.)
Development (R & D) support to the Solar industries in 1st phase 27.561436° 71.929246° 3000
Rajasthan and Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Prasaran Nigam 27.561003° 71.949858°
Limited (RRVPNL), the power transmission utility licensed to 27.536027° 71.970592°
operate in the state of Rajasthan, will develop the Power 27.509074° 71.969121°
evacuation system for pooling of generated power. [1, 4] 27.505844° 71.934704°
27.508915° 71.896030°
3. RSP LOCATION AT BHADLA 27.541685° 71.902458°
Proposed Solar Park is to be developed on 10,000 Ha. vacant 2nd Phase 27.469911° 71.891085° 5000
Government land in village Bhadla in Phalodi sub-division of 27.463404° 71.967841°
Jodhpur district in Rajasthan in 2-3 phases. The Government 27.464040° 72.038529°
of Rajasthan has designated areas of land that will allow for 27.488111° 72.041165°
the build-up in “convoy” of multiple plants over the next 5 to 27.488480° 71.967818°
10 years, eventually totaling 2 to 3 GW of generation capacity. 27.509074° 71.969121°
The following sets of coordinates provide the detail of 27.508915° 71.896030°
available land, which is estimated to be a total of 10,000 3rd Phase 27.525330° 72.023196° 2000
hectares. [1] 27.488111° 72.041165°
Majority of the land in the park is waste uncultivable land with 27.488849° 72.023203°
sand dunes due to deserted conditions and lack of water for 27.488480° 71.967818°
irrigation. Some portion of land is under seasonal cultivation 27.536027° 71.970592°
of castor oil seed, Gawar and Bajara, though the agriculture in Source: RRECL
the area is purely depended on rainfalls or bore pumps.
Table (3).Description Of Solar Park Site

Sr. Description Site

No.
1. Area of Land 10,000 Ha
2. Slope of Land Sloping Land
with Sand Dunes
3. Aprox. Amount of outing Land To be
Required determined after
Survey
4. Owner of Land Government
Copyright © 2012 CTTS.IN, All right reserved
180
 Current Trends in Technology and Science
ISSN : 2275-0535. Volume : II, Issue : I

5. Private Land (in Ha.) Nill The project site is located at elevation ranging between
6. Agriculture land/Non To be approximately 168 to 185 m above mean sea level. The area is
Agriculture Land/Bhanjar Land determined after nearly flat, shallow, south – east to north –west sloping
Survey surface. The first stratum of sand layer consists of fine sand
7. Housing /Building Nill and silty sand (up to 0 to 3m) and the second stratum consist
8. River /Canal 1.3Km from of cemented fine sand (between 3 to 6m). The ground water
Indira Gandhi was not available up to 3 m depth.
Canal
9. National /State Highway 35Km from NH- 7. METROLOGICAL DATA AT RSP BHADLA
15 Overall meteorological data and wind directions at the site are
10. Forest Area Nill indicated below:
11. Village/Town Bhadla Table(5). Metrological Data
12. Market/Area of Economic 50Km from
Activity Park: Phalod Parameter Maximum Minimum
13. Road Accessibility Connected with
Air Temperature (*C) 50 3
Nachna – Bhap
Road Wind Speed (m/s) 6.2 3.6
14. EHV Line Passing Nearby None
(Distance) Relative Humidity (%) 100 5
15. National / State Highway None Avg...Rainfall(mm) 380 .05
Passing
Source: RRECL Source: RRECL

4. TECHNOLOGIES USED 8. POWER EVACUATION SYSTEM

The technologies used in Rajasthan Solar Park for energy In order to evacuate the power from the solar power plant,
generation will be PV – Photovoltaic, based on the RRVPNL is developing an integrated power evacuation
photovoltaic effect and CSP – Concentrated Solar Power system according to solar power evacuation requirements
usually related to heat based conversion of radiation and use comprising of one 400 kV sub-station at Bhadla and
of that heat to generate electricity. Concentrated photovoltaic - construction of 3 pooling sub-stations of 132 kV GSS in solar
has emerged in recent years and although it is similar in park for evacuation of power with provision of their up
principle to PV, it is different in the way it harnesses solar gradation to 220 kV at a later date and its interconnection with
energy. 400 kV GSS. Power from Bhadla 400 kV sub-station shall be
evacuated by double circuit 400 kV line to Mokla 400 kV sub-
5. GENERATION LEVEL AT RSP station and double circuit 400 kV line from 400 kV GSS
Bhadla to 765/400 kV Jodhpur sub-station. [1]
The solar park in Bhadla for Phase I encompasses 150 MW of
CSP and 100 MW of PV projects. Based on the numbers
9. ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
previously given on available radiation, it may be considered
that 5 hours at nominal rate is available for both PV and CSP Based on the environmental assessment and site surveys
power plants. conducted for the project, there are very minimal associated
Table(4). Overall Park Level Generation For Phase I potential adverse environmental impacts, which can be
mitigated to an acceptable level by adequate implementation
Technologies MV Hours MWh of the measures as stated in the Environment Management
(Years) Plan (EMP) documents. Overall, the major social and
PV 100 5 182,500 environmental impacts associated with project are limited to
the construction period and can be mitigated to an acceptable
CSP 150 5 273,750 level by implementation of recommended measures and by
Total 250 5 456,250 best engineering and environmental practices. Adequate
Source: RRECL
budget provisions should be made in the project to cover the
Environmental mitigation and monitoring requirements, with
6. GEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS associated costs. [1, 9]
The project consists of a proposed solar plant, including 10.CONCLUSION
photovoltaic (PV) panels; transformers and associated
infrastructure - control room etc. Initially the pace of work progress of development is
somewhat slow, mainly because power generation from solar
Copyright © 2012 CTTS.IN, All right reserved
181
 Current Trends in Technology and Science
ISSN : 2275-0535. Volume : II, Issue : I

energy is expensive and costly. The unusual bhanjar/non [16] Palanichamy, C., Babu, N.S., Nadarajan, C., "Municipal
residential/non agricultural lands are successfully being used solid waste fueledpower generation for India," IEEE
Transactions on Energy Conversion,vol.17, no.4, pp. 556-
for establishing solar thermal power plant. And fulfilling the 563, Dec 2002.
dreams to fill the energy gap between supply and demand in [17] Non-Conventional Energy Sources, G.D.Rai, Khanna
rural areas of Rajasthan State. Rajasthan Government is fully Publishers, Fourth Edition.
committed to the promotion of solar energy. We believe that [18] The Energy Resources Institute, TERI
implementation of the Rajasthan Solar Energy Policy 2011 Available:http://www.teriin.org/index.php?option=com_c
ontent&task=view&id=59
will help develop Rajasthan as a global hub of solar power for
10000-12000 MW capacity over the next 10 to 12 years to
meet energy requirements of Rajasthan and other states of AUTHOR’S PROFILE
India.
Hemant Kumar recieved Bachelor of
Engineering degree in Electrical Engineering
ACKNOWLEDGMENT from Maharana Pratap University of
The present study report is in the continuation mode as a part Agriculture & Technology, Udaipur,
of Dissertation / Project of M.Tech (Power Systems) course Rajasthan, India in 2011.
under the guidance of Mr. A K Sharma, Associate Professor, He is currently pursuing Masters with
specialisation in Power Systems from
Dept. of Electrical Engineering, UCE-RTU Kota. The author University College of Engineering-Rajasthan
Mr. Hemant Kumar gratefully acknowledges Mr. A K Technical University, Kota, Rajasthan, India.
Sharma and other co-authors for their valuable guidance and
support. Upasna Arora received Bachelor of
Technology (Hons.) degree in Electrical
Engineering from I.E.T-M.J.P Rohilkhand
REFERENCES University, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India in
[1] India: Rajasthan Renewable Energy Transmission Annual 2011.
Report For FY 2011.
[2] GoR. 2011. Rajasthan Solar Policy. Government of Rajasthan, She is currently pursuing Masters with
Issued on Dated 19 April 2011. specialisation in Power Systems from
University College of Engineering, Rajasthan
[3] Ramachandra, T.V., R. Jain and G. Krishnadas (2011). Technical University, Kota, Rajasthan, India.
"Hotspots of solar potential in India."Renewable and Sustainable
Energy Reviews 15(6): 3178-3186.
[4] Sharma, A. (2011). "A comprehensive study of solar power in Ruchika Jain received Bachelor of
India and World." Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews Technology (Gold Medalist.) degree in
15(4): 1767-1776. Electrical & Electronics Engineering from
Govt. Engineering College for Women, Ajmer,
[5] Sharma, N.K., P.K. Tiwari and Y.R. Sood (2012). "Solar energy Rajasthan, India in 2011.
in India: Strategies, policies, perspectives and future potential." She is currently pursuing Masters with
Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 16(1): 933-944.
specialisation in Power Systems from
[6] Singh, V.S., D.N. Pandey, A.K. Gupta and N.H. Ravindranath University College of Engineering, Rajasthan
(2010). "Climate Change Impacts,Mitigation and Adaptation: Technical University, Kota, Rajasthan, India.
Science for Generating Policy Options in Rajasthan, India."
RSPCB Occasional Paper No. 2/2010. Rajasthan State Pollution
Control Board, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India: pp.150. A K Sharma received Bachelor of Engineering
[7] Sukhatme, S. P. and J. K. Nayak (1997). "Solar energy in degree (Hons.) in Electrical Engineering from
western Rajasthan." Current Science 72(1): 62-68. M.B.M Engineering College Jodhpur, J.N.V.
University, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India in 1986
[8] Shreemat Pandey, “Success in Scaling-up Solar Energy in and Master of Engineering with specialisation
Rajasthan, India”. in Power Apparatus & Electric Drives from
[9] National electricity policy 2006-11 India. Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee
[10] Kevin Porter, "Open Access Transmission and Renewable (formerly University of Roorkee), India in
Energy Technologies," NREL/SP-460-21427, Golden, 1993.
Sept.1996 . He is presently Associate Professor in
[11] Various state electricity Regulatory commission website. University College of Engineering, Rajasthan Technical University,
[12] Website Link : www.ijarer.org/Issue.9/1-9-4.pdf Kota, Rajasthan, India. Prof. Sharma is a Fellow of the Institution of
[13] www.rrecl.com/.../Success%20in%20Scaling- Engineers (India) and a Life Member of the Indian Society of
[14] Guo Zhongwen. “Solar photovoltaic power Technical Education and Indian Society of Lighting Engineers. His
automatictracking system”, Solar energy, No.6, pp.36- fields of interest include power electronics, electrical drives, static
37(2008). var compensation, optimisation and renewable energy.
[15] S.K. Singal, Varun, R.P. Singh, “Rural electrification of a
remote island byrenewable energy sources,” Renewable
Energy, Volume 32, Issue 15,December 2007, Pages
2491-2501.

Copyright © 2012 CTTS.IN, All right reserved

182