India, with its large population and rapidly growing economy, needs access to clean, cheap and reliable sources of energy. India lies in the high solar insolation region, endowed with huge solar energy potential with most of the country having about 300 days of sunshine per year with annual mean daily global solar radiation in the range of 4 - 6 kWh/m2/day. On December 2014 the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) of India announced the approval for implementation of a Scheme for Development of Solar Parks and Ultra Mega Solar Power Projects in the country commencing from 2014-15 and onwards. At that time, the scheme was aimed to set up at least 25 solar parks each with a capacity of 500 MW and above with a target of over 20.000 MW.

The concept of “Solar Park” is an infrastructure to accelerate the development of solar power generation projects in a concentrated zone, by providing to developers an area that is well characterized, provide dedicated infrastructure to reduce the expenses of infrastructure for each solar developer located in the zone.

On March 2017, and due to the successful progress of the solar parks implementation, MNRE reviewed the goal of the scheme so as to enhance the capacity from 20.000 to 40.000 MW by setting up at least 50 solar parks each with a capacity of 500 MW an above by 2019-20.

The objective of scheme is to provide a huge impetus to solar energy generation by acting as a flagship facility to encourage project developers and investors, prompting additional projects of similar nature, triggering economies of scale for cost-reductions, technical improvements and achieving large scale reductions in GHG emissions. It will enable States to bring in significant investment from project developers, meet its Solar Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) mandates and provide employment opportunities to local population. The State will also reduce its carbon footprint by avoiding emissions equivalent to the solar park’s installed capacity and generation. Further, the State will also avoid procuring expensive fossil fuels to power conventional power plants