Solar projects Falling Behind Schedule

In spite of boasting of 325 days of sunshine days in a year, solar projects have missed deadlines in Rajasthan.

Four of the five concentrated solar power CSP projects in Rajasthan with a total capacity of 470 MW, are running behind schedule. The deadline was May9.  Read more on solar power here

However, since this is the pilot scheme and a learning cuvre for both the government and the projevt owners, the government is not going to impose the penalty of Rs 1 lakh/MW/day and has extended the deadline by 10 months.

While the Godavari Green Energy Ltd CSP project in Rajasthan would be commissioned this year, all other projects are lacking behind. It is felt that the commissioning period of 28 months was a bit overambitious.

There are only two proven suppliers of Heat Transfer Fluid (HTF) globally. US-based Dow Chemicals and Solutia monopolise the market in HTF and have pending delivery schedules due to high demand from projects in the US and Spain. This has contributed to delay for most CSP developers in India.

Even though the days of sunshine are good enough, DNI (Direct Natural Irradiance) levels are affected because of dust and lack of adequate data is also delaying the projects.

Reference-

TOI

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