India: A Large-scale Solar Park on Drought-prone Agricultural Land

This case study examines the Pavagada Solar Park in Karnataka, India, focusing on its innovative land-leasing model and the resulting socio-economic and environmental trade-offs. While the project successfully contributed to renewable energy targets and provided stable income for landowners, it faced challenges regarding water scarcity, limited local job creation, and negative impacts on non-land-owning residents.

• The Pavagada Solar Park utilized an innovative land acquisition model where the Karnataka Solar Power Development Corporation Ltd. (KSPDCL) leased 13,000 acres from 2,300 agricultural landowners for 25 to 28 years instead of purchasing the land. This approach allowed farmers to retain ownership and receive a stable annual rent of INR 21,000 ($313) per acre, with a 5% increase every two years, while developers avoided bureaucratic delays.
• The project has faced significant water management challenges because it is located in a drought-prone region where the state government had declared drought 54 times in the previous 60 years. Cleaning solar panels requires an estimated 14,000 to 40,000 kilolitres of water per wash for a plant of this size, but the approved daily extraction of 1,110 kilolitres via borewells is considered insufficient.
• Expected socio-economic benefits, particularly job creation and infrastructure development, largely failed to materialize for the local community. Although the project was approved on the premise that a $2.2 billion investment would create 8,000 jobs, most positions were filled by migrant workers or consisted of precarious contractual roles like site watchmen. Additionally, many promised social infrastructure projects remained uncompleted because they were not recorded in legal documents.
• The solar park negatively impacted non-land-owning residents, specifically pastoralists who previously used the land as a commons for grazing livestock. Because these individuals are not titular owners, they were not treated as stakeholders in the lease agreements.

APA

World Resources Institute (2021). India: A Large-scale Solar Park on Drought-prone Agricultural Land. https://www.wri.org/snapshots/india-large-scale-solar-park-drought-prone-agricultural-land

Chicago

World Resources Institute. India: A Large-scale Solar Park on Drought-prone Agricultural Land. 2021. https://www.wri.org/snapshots/india-large-scale-solar-park-drought-prone-agricultural-land.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=India: A Large-scale Solar Park on Drought-prone Agricultural Land |date=1 April 2021 |url=https://www.wri.org/snapshots/india-large-scale-solar-park-drought-prone-agricultural-land |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitute2021india, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{India: A Large-scale Solar Park on Drought-prone Agricultural Land}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2021}, month = apr, url = {https://www.wri.org/snapshots/india-large-scale-solar-park-drought-prone-agricultural-land}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }