Pavagada Solar Park

Pavagada Solar Park (officially Shakti Sthala) is one of the world's largest operational solar parks — a 2,050 MW solar photovoltaic generation facility on a 13,000-acre site at Pavagada in Tumkur district, Karnataka. The park became fully operational in 2019, when it was the world's largest solar park (subsequently surpassed by Bhadla Solar Park in Rajasthan and the Tengger Desert Solar Park in China).

The park is structured as 8 sub-blocks of 250 MW each — each sub-block awarded to a different developer-concessionaire under Karnataka's solar tender programme. Major developers include: Tata Power Solar (250 MW), Adani Green (250 MW), ReNew Power (250 MW), Azure Power, Mytrah Energy, and others. Total project investment: ₹16,500 crore.

Key infrastructure: 4.7 million crystalline silicon PV modules + ~20,000 string inverters, dedicated 220 kV + 400 kV pooling substations, integrated transmission corridor to Karnataka grid, on-site weather-monitoring + production-prediction stations. The park land was leased from local farmers under a unique 'land pooling' scheme — farmers received annual lease payments + retained agricultural rights on plot peripheries (livestock grazing + small-area cropping continues).

Pavagada is significant for several reasons: India's first solar park to use the SECI (Solar Energy Corporation of India) competitive-tender model, India's first major solar park with integrated agro-pastoral land-use, and the operational benchmark for subsequent parks at Bhadla (Rajasthan, 2,245 MW) + Rewa (MP, 750 MW).