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	Cons
No need for land, Increase in Power generation Easy to maintenance and so on. Less evaporation and algae bloom	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

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