Previous Year Question
Consider the following statements.
Gujarat has the largest solar park in India.
Kerala has a fully solar-powered International Airport.
Goa has the largest floating solar photovoltaic project in India.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
1 and 2
Only 2
1 and 3
Only 3
Correct Answer: B
Detailed Solution
Statement 1 is incorrect.
In the question-year 2022, India’s largest solar park was not in Gujarat; it was the Bhadla Solar Park in Rajasthan.
Developed in the arid Bhadla region of Jodhpur district, Rajasthan, this solar park had an installed capacity of approximately 2,245 MW.
Gujarat has the Charanka Solar Park, while the massive Khavda Renewable Energy Park was being developed in Kutch, but this does not make Statement 1 correct.
The question required the largest existing solar park in the question-year, rather than a proposed or under-construction park.
Statement 2 is correct.
Kerala’s Cochin International Airport (CIAL) became the world’s first airport to be fully powered by solar energy in 2015.
For this purpose, CIAL installed a dedicated solar plant with a capacity of 13.1 MWp and subsequently expanded its solar generation capacity in phases.
“Fully solar-powered” does not mean that the airport is completely isolated from the electricity grid. It means that its solar installations generate clean electricity equal to or greater than the airport’s annual electricity requirement.
Statement 3 is incorrect.
At the time the question was asked, India’s largest operational floating solar photovoltaic project was not located in Goa.
In August 2021, NTPC commissioned a 25 MW floating solar project on the reservoir of the Simhadri Thermal Power Station in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. At that time, it was the country’s largest operational floating solar project.
Floating solar panels are installed on the surface of a reservoir. They reduce land requirements, can decrease evaporation of water and may receive an efficiency benefit from the cooling effect of water.