New Delhi: Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) on Thursday said it has successfully commissioned a 25 megawatt (MW) floating solar plant, India’s largest such plant, at NTPC Simhadri in Andhra Pradesh.

The project is spread over an area of 100 acres. It will result in a higher yield as compared to conventional ground-mounted projects due to the cooling effect and will reduce water evaporation by providing shade to the covered area, according to the official company release.

It added that BHEL’s portfolio of floating solar projects is the largest in the country with more than 45 MW projects commissioned and about 107 MW under execution.

The release said that the company has designed an innovative floating array to meet the anchoring requirement of the support structures without touching or loading, either the reservoir floor or the bund structure.

“This complex module array has been designed - for the first time in India - to withstand gusts of wind up to 180 km per hour. In view of the coastal location of the project site that leads to severe corrosion, all the platform structures and other equipment have been made corrosion resistant,” the release added.

The company’s scope of work included design, engineering, procurement and construction of the solar project.

BHEL has an overall EPC portfolio of more than 1.2 GW and offers solutions for both grid-interactive and off-grid, ground mounted, rooftop, floating and canal top solar plants. It also manufactures space-grade solar panels and batteries for space applications.