280GW of solar potential lies within India's reservoirs

About 18,000 sqkm can be utilised for floating solar PV development.India's reservoirs have 18,000 sqkm of area with the potential to generate 280GW of solar power through floating solar photovoltaic (PV) plants, according to a report by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).The report has calculated the potential for floating solar photovoltaics (FSPVs), or 'floatovoltaics', on the basis of 30% of the water surface area of the country's medium and large reservoirs. The report provides state-wise details of floating solar potential in the form of a web-based interactive tool called India Floating Solar PV-Tool, which has also been developed under this study. Its findings said that the state of Maharashtra has the most potential and can generate 57,891MW of electricity through solar PV installations on 3173 sqkm of water surface area in reservoirs.At present, ground-based installations form 93.1% of India's grid-connected solar PV sector. The installation cost of utility-scale solar PV in the country has reduced by 84% between 2010 and 2018, making India the country with the lowest installation cost for utility scale solar PVs.“However, solar PV deployment is quite land intensive and scaling up projects requires large chunks of contiguous land parcels, which has its own set of challenges. In order to keep the pace of development commensurate with India's national targets for solar capacity additions, alternatives such as floating solar need to be explored and established,” TERI said.