Indian energy firm Tata Power Solar has secured an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) order for a project worth Rs55bn ($716m) from Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN), an Indian state-owned power company.

The 1GW solar facility will be built in the Indian state of Rajasthan on a site covering more than 5,000 acres of land.

It will be developed under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy’s Central Public Sector Undertaking Scheme within a span of 24 months.

Once completed, the project will have the capacity to generate around 2,500 million units of electricity while displacing more than two million kilogrammes of carbon emissions a year.

Tata Power managing director and CEO Dr Praveer Sinha said: “We are proud to have won this mega solar project from SJVN.

“Implementation of such a large project reflects our commitment to the promotion of clean and green energy in the country and strengthens our position as the leading solar EPC player.”

The EPC order was designed to support the Indian government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative, which aims to increase the country’s domestic production of cells and modules.

The contract has brought Tata Power Solar’s order booking to more than Rs120bn, with the company now having a cumulative portfolio of more than 9.3GW for utility-scale renewable projects.

In a separate development, Tata Power subsidiary Tata Power Renewable Energy has commissioned a 120MW solar project in Mesanka, Gujarat.

The solar project has the capacity to generate 305,247MWh a year for the Gujarat Government while displacing up to 103,000t of carbon dioxide annually.

Its construction involved around 381,000 solar modules, including thin-film glass on glass modules of various wattages, as well as harnesses with capacities ranging from 440Wp to 460Wp.

The solar facility has increased Tata Power’s operational renewable capacity to 3,520MW, with solar accounting for 2,588MW of this.