Construction Industry News
The "Development of Solar Farms and Ultra-Mega Solar Projects" program now has a deadline of March 31, 2026 (FY 2026), as opposed to the former deadline of FY 2024, according to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE). There are no financial implications to the longer schedule.
It comes at a time when solar farm construction has been extremely slow, with only nine of the 57 permitted solar farms completed as of February 2023 and another eight installed halfway through, with a combined capacity of 10,117 MW.
The program, which was initially implemented in December 2014, was launched with the goal of establishing at least 25 solar farms and 20 GW of ultra-mega solar power plants within five years, starting with FY 2014-15.
In March 2017, the program's capacity was increased to 40 GW and it was proposed to build parks by FY 2023-2024.
To be eligible for the program, solar farms must have a capacity of 500 MW or more. Smaller parks are only taken into account in cases where there is a serious lack of contiguous or non-agricultural land.
The program was set up to promote the rapid installation of grid-connected solar installations for mass electricity production.
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