Indian renewable energy company SAEL has commissioned 600MW of solar PV capacity in Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh.
The projects named SAEL Solar MHP1 and SAEL Solar MHP2, were developed with an investment of nearly INR30 billion (US$311 million), spanning over 2,400 acres.
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Each 300MW project is operated under separate special purpose vehicles – SAEL Solar MHP1 Private Limited and SAEL Solar MHP2 Private Limited. The facilities achieved commercial operations earlier this year.
The plants collectively deploy more than 1.2 million tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) bifacial solar modules, most of which were assembled at SAEL’s manufacturing facilities in Punjab and Rajasthan.
Power generated from the projects will be supplied to the national grid under a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI). During construction, more than 1,000 workers were engaged directly and indirectly.
The development was executed under SAEL’s integrated engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) and operations and maintenance framework, in coordination with the Andhra Pradesh government and local authorities for land acquisition, clearances and grid connectivity.
The commissioning comes as Andhra Pradesh advances its Integrated Clean Energy Policy 2024, under which the state targets INR10 trillion in investments across renewable energy, storage, green hydrogen, transmission and manufacturing by 2029.
SAEL Industries, which operates across solar generation, module manufacturing and agri-waste-to-energy, reports a portfolio of 8,299MWp of solar-plus-storage capacity in India, alongside 3,625MW of module assembly capacity.
The company signed two PPAs totalling 880MW of solar capacity with the Indian states of Gujarat and Punjab last year. In Gujarat, SAEL subsidiaries – SAEL Solar P Sixteen Private Limited and SAEL Solar P Seventeen Private Limited – signed a PPA with Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Limited (GUVNL) for 480MW of solar projects, comprising an initial 240MW allocation and a further 240MW under the greenshoe option.
The company also announced a 5GW solar cell and 5GW module manufacturing facility in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh. SAEL, through its subsidiary SAEL Solar P6 Private Limited, invested INR82 billion (US$954 million) in the project.
