Andhra Pradesh gets a new floating solar power plant on Meghadri Gedda reservoir
- Category
Ecology and Environment
- Published
29th Jul, 2022
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Context
A floating solar power plant commissioned at Meghadri Gedda reservoir in Andhra Pradesh’s Visakhapatnam.
About
Key points
- Renewable energy plant: It can save coal up to 54000 tonnes per year.
- Capacity: It will produce about 2 million unitsof power each year.
- Developing entity: Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC)
- Significance:
- No need for land acquisition
- Low-cost energy production
- Promotion of renewable energy resources
What are Solar Technologies?
- Solar technologies convert sunlight into electrical energy either through photovoltaic (PV) panels or through mirrors that concentrate solar radiation.
- This energy can be used to generate electricity or be stored in batteries or thermal storage.
Types of Solar plants in India
- Solar plants can be either;
- Ground-mountedor
- Set up on the surface of water-bodies or
- Though these floating farms are a bit more expensive than the traditional ones mounted on land surfaces.
Pros
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Cons
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- No need for land,
- Increase in Power generation
- Easy to maintenance and so on.
- Less evaporation and algae bloom
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Solar panel needs to be prevented from corrosion.
Reduced shelf-life for metal parts used.
Higher cost of installation.
Needs more maintenance
May lead to water pollution
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Common Uses of Solar energy
- Photoelectric cells
- Solar power generation
- Solar heating systems

Some other to be commissioned power plants
The renewable energy plants that are likely to be are:
- 25MW floating solar plant at Simhadri thermal power plant near Visakhapatnam
- 92MW floating solar plant at Kayamkulam in Kerala
- 100 MW plant at Ramagundam
Flue-gas desulfurization (FGD)
- It is a set of technologies used to remove sulfur dioxide (SO2) from exhaust flue gases of fossil-fuel power plants.
- It also removes emissions of other sulfur oxide emitting processes such as waste incineration.
- flue-gas desulfurization (FGD) may remove 90 per cent or more of the SO2 in the flue gases
- Common methods used for FGD
- Wet scrubbing using a slurry of alkaline sorbent, usually limestone or lime, or seawater to scrub gases
- Spray-dry scrubbing using similar sorbent slurries
- Wet sulfuric acid process recovering sulfur in the form of commercial quality sulfuric acid
- SNOX Flue gas desulfurization removes sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulates from flue gases
- Dry sorbent injection systems that introduce powdered hydrated lime (or other sorbent material) into exhaust ducts to eliminate SO2 and SO3 from process emissions
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