Solar Power Cells Over Water Bodies [Narmada Canal, Gujarat]

Ankita Katdare

Ankita Katdare

@abrakadabra • Oct 24, 2024
You must have already read in the news about Gujarat becoming the first state in the country to generate solar power through panels mounted on a water body. The state is all set to install solar power cells over 1 km of the Narmada canal.

How much feasible and advantageous is this?

One that we can think of immediately is that this is a clean energy resource. Secondly, the need of land is reduced and we prevent the evaporation of lakhs of litres of water since the canal will be covered.

This is a Gujarat State Electricity Corporation Limited's (GSECL) project for 1 MW.
The engineering, procurement and construction contract for the project has been awarded to Sun Edison at a cost of Rs 17.71 crore. This is slightly higher than a traditional solar plant, where panels are mounted on land, which costs in the region of Rs14-15 crore for 1 MW.

The project will be complete in the next 2-3 weeks. What are your views about this?
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  • praveen_EEE

    praveen_EEE

    @praveen-eee-rYWMoK • Mar 2, 2012

    In Tamil Nadu they were giving free mixer grinder and wet grinder.. but they are not giving us electricity.. then what can we do with that, i think if they give free solar panel, then we don't have power failure... but they are not doing that...
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  • Donagh

    Donagh

    @donagh-mWLu9A • Mar 2, 2012

    I think that installing solar panels is always a good idea, it’s a missive resource and needs to be invested in if we are to get anything worthwhile out of it. But ehhh, why on the water? I image that a canal would have lots of stagnant water in it so above the water level the ambient humidity would be quite high. This environment is quite a breeding ground for single celled organisms that thrive in humid areas aka slime. Since a solar panels power harvesting capability is directly linked to how clean it is, then this doesn’t seem like such a good idea.. the whole array would have to be scrubbed down every two weeks.
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  • praveen_EEE

    praveen_EEE

    @praveen-eee-rYWMoK • Mar 2, 2012

    but getting power from canal is not a simple process.. it requires high capital cost and need more time for construction.. but solar energy is renewable energy..
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  • Kaustubh Katdare

    Kaustubh Katdare

    @thebigk • Mar 2, 2012

    I've always believed that the petroleum companies make sure that the world doesn't get enough of solar panels. But given the project being carried out in Gujarat; I must say the engineers have come up with a nice idea. I want to know how what percent of the canal are they planning to cover.
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