Gujarat canal-top solar saves 2.38 mn gallons water yearly

The Story in Brief

A canal-top solar plant in Gujarat's Chandrasan village, commissioned in 2012, generates 1 MW of power while preventing 2.38 million gallons of water evaporation annually from the branch canal below. Developed by the Gujarat State Electricity Corporation and Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam, the project uses elevated steel structures to mount panels over irrigation channels, also reducing algae growth. State projections suggest covering 10% of Gujarat's canal network could yield 2,200 MW and save 200 billion litres of water each year, though these figures remain estimates. A 2025 study by Amandeep Singh Makhija and Shabbir S. Bohra in Energy for Sustainable Development examined the plant's long-term performance. The concept has not scaled widely because building over water is more complex and costly than ground-mounted solar on cheap farmland.

Canal-top solar makes best sense where farmland is scarce, evaporation is high and power demand is local. India launched a 100 MW national program in 2014 but deployment has stayed gradual.