The Indian state of West Bengal will develop multiple 'small' solar power parks as it cannot find a contiguous stretch of land to set up the entire 500 MW solar park capacity targeted as part of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM).
To install 1 MW of solar power capacity, depending on system design, around 5 acres of land is needed. State Power Minister Shobhondeb Chatterjee was quoted in an agency news as saying, "We will create multiple solar parks and capacity will depend on size of land, which is a more viable option."
According to the JNNSM, West Bengal is expected to install around 4,200 MW of solar power capacity in the state by 2022, including both rooftop PV as well as solar power plants capacity.
TaiyangNews spoke to the office of State Power Minister Shobhondeb Chatterjee and learned that the current installed PV rooftop capacity in the state stands at 12 MW, while that of solar power plants is 22 MW. By the end of the current fiscal year 2016-17, West Bengal is hoping to reach 60 MW of rooftop PV capacity and 30 MW of power plant capacity.