Centre Streamlines Solar Park Approval Process, Industry Leaders Welcome Move

The central government has simplified the approval process for setting up a solar park. According to new guidelines, Central Public Sector Undertakings (CPSUs) and their joint ventures can now submit detailed project reports (DPRs) directly to ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) without state government committee's approval. Invest UP, the official website of Uttar Pradesh government, said that the objective of this policy is to simplify procedures and accelerate the establishment of solar and renewable energy parks all across the country.

However, the developers must still obtain approval from their respective boards for charges related to infrastructure development, land leases and return on equity, as per the new guidelines.

Industry leaders have welcomed the change, saying it will help in the installation of more solar parks.

"For building a solar plant, two tough parts are buying land and building the infrastructure. With a solar park, both these are taken care of as the government provides land and builds the infrastructure, thus making the execution process swift by doing the heavy lifting items upfront," said Tanya Singhal, the founder of Mynzo Carbon and SolarArise.

"With the ministry streamlining this process and facilitating larger, more GW scale solar parks, the installation of solar plants is bound to grow helping India get to its vision of 500 GW renewable energy installed with 50% cumulative electric power from clean energy sources by 2030," she added.

"There is a substantial pipeline of large-scale projects scheduled for 2024, positioning India for a record-breaking year by a significant margin," Mercom Capital Group's CEO Raj Prabhu told Renewable Now.

A solar park is large chunk of land developed with common infrastructure facilities like transmission infrastructure, road, water, drainage and communication network with all statutory clearances. 

The scheme was rolled out by Ministry of New and Renewable Energy in December, 2014. Under the scheme, it was proposed to set up at least 25 solar parks and ultra mega solar power projects targeting 20,000 MW of solar power installed capacity within a span of five years starting from 2014-15. The capacity of the scheme was enhanced from 20,000 MW to 40,000 MW in 2017.

It is to be noted that the Adani group owns the Khavda renewable energy park - world's largest - that is spread over 538 square kilometres. This is roughly five times the size of Paris.