India’s reservoirs can host 102 GW of floating solar, says first national assessment

India’s reservoirs tin big astir 102 gigawatt (GW) of floating star capacity, according to the archetypal broad nationalist appraisal of the technology’s imaginable by the National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE), an autonomous institute of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE). The study titled ‘Solar PV Potential of India (Floating Solar)’ frames panels connected h2o arsenic a mode astir 1 of the astir intractable obstacles successful the star assemblage — land.

The 121-page assessment, however, contains nary calculation of what it would outgo to realise this imaginable successful India. Its lone outgo notation is simply a 2021 benchmark from the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which the study cites to enactment that floating plants typically outgo astir 25% much upfront than ground-mounted ones, owing to floats, anchoring and waterproofing.

“We are successful discussions with the Finance Ministry to beforehand floating star and agri-photovoltaics,” Santosh Kumar Sarangi, Secretary, MNRE said astatine a property league connected Wednesday (June 10, 2026) to motorboat the report. Agri-photovoltaics notation to workplace beds that are sheltered by structures connected which star panels are mounted.

Acquiring land

Ground-mounted star systems, which predominate India’s astir 100 GW of installed star capacity, necessitate 3 to 4 times much country per megawatt than the panels themselves occupy. Land acquisition, which is costly, dilatory and prone to struggle with agriculture and habitation, has historically and continues to beryllium a chokepoint arsenic India pursues 500 GW of non-fossil capableness by 2030. Floating star is “land neutral”, the study underlines.

NISE arrived astatine its estimation by passing India’s inland h2o bodies done six geospatial filters: lakes and reservoirs larger than 10 hectares, h2o contiguous for astatine slightest 11 months a year, depths betwixt 3 and 30 metres, star irradiance supra 4.5 kWh/m²/day, and proximity wrong 10 km of some roads and substations.

Demonstrated connected Odisha’s Hirakud reservoir, the filters whittled 499 sq. km. of h2o down to 99.5 sq. km. of usable surface. Applied nationwide, they yielded 1,946 sq. km. of feasible area, with a self-imposed headdress of 20% of immoderate reservoir’s surface, translating to 102.18 GW. Maharashtra (16.28 GW), Madhya Pradesh (14.89 GW), Karnataka (13.69 GW), Odisha (12.81 GW) and Telangana (10.72 GW) relationship for the bulk.

Flagship star park

India’s flagship is the Omkareshwar floating star parkland connected the Narmada stream successful Madhya Pradesh’s Khandwa territory — astatine 278 MW, the country’s largest, with plans to standard to 600 MW. Yet NISE’s ain tract observations determination recorded loosening interval joints, misaligned platforms and uneven buoyancy, alongside reports from developers of electrical cables breaking.

Globally, floating star reached astir 9.6 GW by 2024, astir 90% of it successful Asia. China leads, with installations specified arsenic a 120 MW works connected a food workplace successful Poyang Lake; Singapore’s 1 MW Tengeh reservoir testbed has supplied overmuch of the field’s show data; and the Netherlands accounts for astir three-fourths of Europe’s capacity, built mostly connected quarry lakes.