Clinton Foundation plans 3MW of solar farms in India

The Clinton Foundation plans to set up solar farms in the Indian state of Gujarat that will have a total combined capacity of at least 3MW.

The organisation this week signed a memorandum of understanding with the Gujarat government to build four or five solar farms that would each have an installed capacity of between 700MW and 800MW. Electricity generated from the facilities would be sold to state power companies.

Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi said the scheme would involve an investment of more than $10bn (£6bn) and create about 20,000 jobs. No timeframe was given for the project.

Details were not provided on how the solar plants would be funded, although the Gujarat government said that the Clinton Foundation is in talks with more than a dozen large corporations worldwide for potential involvment as investors.

The scheme is being overseen by the foundation’s Clinton Climate Initiative, which was launched in 2006 by former US president Bill Clinton to work with governments and businesses worldwide to address major sources of greenhouse gas emissions.

The PV farms may be eligible for incentives under Gujarat’s Solar Power Policy, which was launched in January. The policy exempts solar energy plant operators from paying electricity duty and compels grid operators to buy electricity from them for 25 years at a fixed tariff.

The feed-in tariff for projects commissioned before 31 December 2010 is 13 rupees (26c, 16p) per kilowatt hour for the first 12 years of power generation and 3 rupees per kWh for the remaining 13 years.

According to the Times of India newspaper, Gujarat has allocated 1,500 hectares of land in the Rann of Kutch, a desert along the Pakistan border, along with a small stretch of land in the state’s northeast Banaskantha district.