OREANDA-NEWS. April 03, 2012. Reliance Power Limited (BSE: RPOWER), a Reliance Group company, commissioned India's largest solar photovoltaic power plant here today. The 40 megawatt ground-mounted system has been developed in a record period of five months by the company in Village Dhursar, near Pokaran, in Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan.

The plant commissioning was done this morning in the presence of the Hon'ble Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy, Dr. Farooq Abdullah, and Hon'ble Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Shri Ashok Gehlot.

The Dhursar plant is expected to generate more than 70 million kilowatt hours of clean, green energy annually, making Dhursar the largest plant of its kind in the country. The site is spread over an area of 350 acres and it will supply clean energy equivalent to consumption of 75,000 households.

"Our Dhursar plant demonstrates the huge potential of solar energy to help India meet its growing energy needs in the most environmentally friendly manner. It is also a testimony of the quick timeframe in which solar power plants can be built and commissioned. Reliance Power's vision is to become India's largest green power company and the commissioning of this solar plant is the first major step in that direction." said Anil D Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Power on the occasion.

The Reliance Power plant uses new and efficient technology like thin film and it is estimated that the clean energy generated from the solar plant will displace over 70,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year—the equivalent of taking 25,000 cars off the road.

Speaking on the occasion, J.P. Chalasani, the CEO of Reliance Power said: "It is in a matter of just over four months that we have developed the entire site, which is unprecedented. Our engineers have done a superb job once again and reaffirmed our project execution abilities."

The 40MW solar power project has become the first power project of the country to tie up financing with international lenders only.

The 40 MW solar PV project, with an investment of f 700 crore, is financed at a debt-equity ratio of 75:25. While Reliance Power infused the entire equity into the project, US Exim Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) have provided the entire debt to the project at competitive rates. This is the first direct loan sanction by ADB to a private sector solar project in India.

The long term Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for PV project has been signed with Reliance Infrastructure.

The 40 MW solar project is the first plant in the series of solar energy projects to be set up by the company.

In addition to the Solar PV Project, Reliance Power is developing a 100 MW Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plant at the same site as part of National Solar Mission. The two projects will require an investment of 2,800 crore, which is the largest investment in solar power at a single location.