By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, December 2, 2021: Odisha will have its first floating power plant at Hirakud Dam in Sambalpur district soon, officials said. In the first phase, the plant will produce 40 MW power.

The state government will invest about Rs 200 crore in the project, the sources said adding that the Grid Corporation of Odisha (GRIDCO) will purchase the power generated from the project. For this purpose, a sub-station will be set up at Kantapali in Bargarh district, the officials added.

This project work will be executed by the Solar Energy Corporation of India Limited (SECI), a CPSU under the administrative control of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).

The solar panels, which have a life-span of 25 years, will be installed in such a manner that they won’t need any shifting in case the water level in the dam increases or decrease.

As per reports, survey of 10 square kilometre of the dam has already been completed, of which the project will come up in 1 square kilometre. In fact, with the vast water mass Hirakud dam has, the state government can tap immense solar energy by installing solar panels.

Though the dam has 275 MW power generation capacity, only 70 MW power is being produced for various reasons.

India’s largest Floating Solar PV plant was recently commissioned successfully at NTPC Simhadri in Andhra Pradesh,