Bids invited to set up Bengaluru’s first floating solar park in Yelahanka

BENGALURU: Yelahanka will soon get Bengaluru’s first floating solar photovoltaic (FSPV) power plant capable of generating 1.15MW of power on a daily basis.
After making strides by setting up solar parks across Karnataka, the government is now thinking of harnessing solar energy on waterbodies. Karnataka Power Corporation Limited (KPCL) has invited bids for commissioning a state-of-the-art floating solar park at Yelahanka.

Once commissioned, this will be the second floating solar project in the state. The first such mega project was launched in February 2022 in Tumakuru by the Tumakuru Smart City Project.
Sources at KPCL said the proposed floating solar park project will come up on a raw water pond spread across six acres adjacent to Yelahanka Combined Cycle Power Plant (YCCPP) of Karnataka Gas Power Corporation Limited (KGPCL).

Narendra Kumar, director (technical), KPCL, said: “We have been mulling setting up floating solar projects in various parts of the state and discussions are on regarding this. We are yet to give tenders for the floating solar project at Yelahanka.”
As per KPCL’s bid documents, a copy of which is available with TOI, the project aims to utilise the sun’s energy to produce electricity through solar PV technology and it will be fed to the 6.6kV feeder. The successful bidder must complete the project within six months from the date of issue of work order.
A senior KPCL engineer explained, “As we have been discussing the setting up of floating solar projects in different parts of the state, we thought of commissioning the first such project in Bengaluru on the premises of our own plant which had about six acres of open water surface and capable of generating about 1.15MW as the temperature varies from 10-39 degrees centigrade. The plant will come up on a three-acre area.”
The successful bidder must design and build structural, mechanical, and electrical networks and handle one year of operations and maintenance of the plant.
Addressing the concerns of any possible impact on the environment, the official said: “The project site is isolated from environmentally sensitive areas and PV power systems do not emit any substances that may threaten the environment. Also, only one side of the reservoir is accessible; the other three sides have thick vegetation. The executing firm must provide protection against atmospheric lightning discharge to the PV arrays.”