(NDTV)
Bhadla village on the fringes of the Thar Desert about 200 km from Rajasthan’s famed Jodhpur city wasn’t on the tourist map and nobody ever went there. It only made headlines for extreme heat, temperatures that went up to 52 degrees in the summer. But the sun’s bounty is now helping change the lives of the people. It is the heart of India’s clean energy push, home to the Bhadla Solar Park. A recent auction of solar power to be generated at a new 250 megawatt plant was recently auctioned for just about Rs. 2.62 for every unit, or kilowatt-hour. This would be among India’s cheapest sources of power, certainly a lot cheaper than the average tariff of Rs. 3.2 per unit for coal-fired thermal units.
Once the solar park is fully operational, the project spread across 10,000 acres, or 40 sq kilometres of wasteland will be a power gold mine, designed to generate 2,255 megawatts of power. That is a little more than one-third of the peak daily demand in the national capital of 6,000 MW, or for that matter, Rajasthan total demand for power. The park already has two phases in operation, producing 480 MW of power. And big names in the business of powering India are lining up to invest in the solar park, many such as the Adani, Tatas and Reliance have signed up pacts for development of solar parks. Finnish company Fortum and South Africa’s Phelan energy and Cleanteach are already investors in Bhadla.
