Discuss how India's canal and reservoir infrastructure can be leveraged to overcome land constraints in solar energy expansion. Examine with reference to canal-top and floating photovoltaic technologies.

Utility-scale solar is land-hungry, and acquiring it triggers the consent, compensation and rehabilitation obligations of the RFCTLARR Act, 2013 [4]. India's water infrastructure — canals exceeding 1,20,000 km and thousands of reservoirs [2] — offers publicly owned, already-acquired surface on which solar can expand without competing for farmland.

Canal-top photovoltaics (CTPV)

• Panels rest on elevated structures spanning the canal width, so land acquisition is bypassed entirely — decisive in dense or land-scarce states [2].
• Pioneered over the Narmada canal in Gujarat, the model has since been replicated in Maharashtra and at New Town, Kolkata, where a 1 MW plant over 1.7 km of the Bagjola canal generates ~1.64 million kWh and avoids 6.57 lakh kg CO₂ annually [2].
• Co-benefits: reduced evaporation, lower algal growth, and generation close to irrigation-pump load, shortening transmission lines [2].

Floating photovoltaics (FSPV)

• Panels float on pontoons over reservoirs; NISE estimates potential of about 102 GWp across inland water bodies [1].
• The Pradhan Mantri Surya Sarovar Yojana (2026) commits ₹5,070 crore for 5,000 MW FSPV with 10,000 MWh of co-located storage, sanctioned FY2026-27 to FY2030-31, with ₹1 crore/MW central assistance [1].
• Water cooling raises module efficiency; mandated storage addresses solar's evening-ramp problem [1].

Limitations to be examined

• Saving land does not mean saving money: canals need costly steel spans, and linear layouts raise cabling, cleaning and security costs.
• Canals are owned by state irrigation departments, so right-of-way, desilting access and tariff benchmarking remain unsettled — PM-SSY itself covers reservoirs, not canals [1].

Canal-top and floating solar cannot replace desert solar parks, but they convert existing public assets into generation capacity while easing land conflict. Extending PM-SSY's dedicated-scheme logic to canals, with separate regulatory benchmark costs and a standard canal right-of-way policy, would let this land-free pathway meaningfully support the 500 GW non-fossil goal — complementing land-based efforts like PM-KUSUM [3].