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

India’s reservoirs can host about 102 gigawatts (GW) of floating solar capacity, according to NISE’s first comprehensive national assessment of the technology’s potential. | Photo credit: AFP

According to the first comprehensive national assessment of the technology’s potential by the National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE), an autonomous institute of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), India’s reservoirs can host about 102 gigawatts (GW) of floating solar capacity. Titled “Solar PV Potential of India (Floating Solar),” the report frames floating panels as a way around one of the solar sector’s most insurmountable obstacles — land.

However, the 121-page assessment contains no calculation of what it would cost to realize this potential in India. Its only benchmark price is a 2021 benchmark from the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which the report cites as saying that floating plants typically cost 25% more up front than land-based ones, thanks to floats, anchoring and waterproofing.

“We are in talks with the finance ministry to promote floating solar and agro-photovoltaics,” said Santosh Kumar Sarangi, MNRE secretary at a press conference on Wednesday (Jun 10, 2026) to launch the report. Agricultural photovoltaics refers to agricultural fields that are protected by structures on which solar panels are mounted.

Acquisition of land

Ground-based solar systems, which dominate India’s roughly 100 GW of installed solar capacity, require three to four times the area per megawatt of the panels themselves. Land acquisition, which is costly, slow and prone to conflict with agriculture and housing, has historically been and continues to be a sticking point as India aims for 500 GW of non-fossil capacity by 2030. Floating solar is “land neutral”, the report points out.

NISE arrived at its estimate by passing India’s inland water bodies through six geospatial filters: lakes and reservoirs larger than 10 hectares, water present at least 11 months of the year, depths between 3 and 30 meters, solar radiation above 4.5 kWh/m²/day, and proximity within 10 km of both roads and substations.

The filters, which were demonstrated at the Hirakud reservoir in Odisha, reduced 499 sq km. of water up to 99.5 square km. usable area. When applied nationwide, they brought 1,946 km2. of feasible area, with its own limit of 20% of the surface of any reservoir, which means 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) account for the bulk.

The flagship of the solar park

India’s flagship project is the Omkareshwar Floating Solar Park on the Narmada River in Madhya Pradesh’s Khandwa district – at 278MW, the largest in the country, with plans to expand to 600MW. Still, NISE’s own field observations there noted loose float joints, misaligned platforms and uneven buoyancy, along with reports from developers of electrical cable breaks.

Globally, floating solar has reached about 9.6 GW by 2024, with nearly 90% in Asia. China leads with installations such as the 120 MW Poyang Lake Fish Farm Plant; Singapore’s 1 MW Tengeh Reservoir Test Site has provided much field performance data; and the Netherlands accounts for roughly three-quarters of Europe’s capacity, built mostly on quarry lakes.

Published – 10 June 2026 21:55 IST