Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has successfully commissioned India’s largest floating Solar PV plant. Located at NTPC Simhadri in Andhra Pradesh, the 25 MW floating SPV project covers an area of 100 acres, leading to saving of valuable land resource and conserving water by reducing evaporation.

Notably, with its unique state-of-the-art design, the project is an engineering
marvel, created by BHEL. Besides producing clean power, the project will also
reduce water evaporation by providing shade to the covered area. It will also
have a higher yield as compared to conventional ground-mounted projects due
to the cooling effect.

BHEL has designed an innovative floating array to meet the unique requirement
of anchoring the support structures without touching or loading, either the
reservoir floor or the bund structure. This complex module array has been
designed – for the first time in India – to withstand gusts of wind up to 180 km/hr.
In view of the coastal location of the project site that leads to severe corrosion,
all the platform structures and other equipment have been made corrosion
resistant.

BHEL’s scope of work in the project included design, engineering, procurement
and construction of the solar project and has been executed by the recently
formed Solar Business Division.

BHEL’s portfolio of floating SPV projects is the largest in the country with more
than 45 MW projects commissioned and around 107 MW under execution.
BHEL is the leading EPC player in the solar industry in India with an overall EPC
portfolio of more than 1.2 GW. The company offers EPC solutions for both
grid-interactive and off-grid, ground mounted, rooftop, floating and canal top
solar plants. In addition, BHEL also manufactures space-grade solar panels and
batteries for space applications.

Backed by a committed and dedicated core engineering team, BHEL has
in-house capability for the entire spectrum of high quality Solar PV products like
solar cells, solar modules, solar inverters, and transformers, etc., in-house
contributing to the Government of India’s AatmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.
This breakthrough achievement is a major step towards self-reliance in floating
solar technology.