First farm-based solar power plant comes up in Rajasthan

It has capacity to produce 17 lakh units of electricity per year

The first farm-based solar power plant under the Prime Minister’s Kisan Urja Suraksha Evum Utthan Mahabhiyan (KUSUM) scheme has come up in Jaipur district’s Kotputli tehsil with a provision for production of 17 lakh units of electricity every year.

The 1 MW project has been established on 3.50 acres of farmland in Kotputli’s Bhaloji village.

The new plant is also the first of the 623 farm-based solar power projects selected by the Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corporation Limited (RRECL) for generating 722 MW capacity in the State under the scheme’s first phase.

The project has been commissioned following a 25-year contract signed between the RRECL and farmland owner Devkaran Yadav in September 2020. Developed at a cost of ₹3.70 crore, the plant is expected to generate an annual income of ₹50 lakh for Mr. Yadav, as the discom will be purchasing electricity at the rate of ₹3.40 per unit.

RRECL chairman Subodh Agarwal said here on Friday that the KUSUM scheme would ensure energy security for farmers, as they could generate revenue from their less productive or barren land. It would also help increase the clean green energy and generate employment in the rural areas, he said.

Renewable energy target

The Congress government in the State had adopted the solar energy and the wind and hybrid energy policies in December 2019 with the plans to develop a capacity of 38,000 MW renewable energy. The capacity to be developed under the KUSUM scheme will be of the order of 2,600 MW, for which the letters of award have been issued to 623 applicants.