Floating solar and AI data centre at Ujani to use 9% of reservoir, says Solapur Collector

A project combining floating solar, battery storage and an artificial intelligence (AI) based data centre has been proposed in the Ujani dam area. District Collector S. Karthikeyan said it would give a new direction to the industrial and economic development of Solapur. The project is expected to generate 2,000 MW of power, 2,800 permanent jobs and about 40,000 direct and indirect jobs.

According to Karthikeyan, the solar project will occupy only nine per cent of Ujani's total water spread, and the remaining 91 per cent of the reservoir will stay open. Ujani's water spread is 33,630 hectares, of which 3,000 hectares are to be used for the project.

Questions had been raised about water use, losses to farmers, displacement, fishing and the impact on the environment. The district administration has therefore clarified the nature of the project and addressed people's concerns. The state government signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the project on April 16, 2026.

The proposal includes a 2,000 MW floating solar project, a 1,800 MW battery storage system and a state-of-the-art data centre with a capacity of 1.4 GW. Power generated from solar will be used in the data centre, and surplus power will be stored in batteries.

On water, the administration said the claim that the project needs six TMC of water is wrong. The actual requirement is 0.42 TMC a year, and maximum use will be up to 0.5 TMC. There will be no cut in the existing water allocation. Modern closed cooling technology will be used to keep the data centre's water needs low. Floating solar panels will reduce evaporation losses by 30 to 70 per cent, and about 1.5 TMC of water a year is expected to be saved.

The administration has made it clear that the residents of Bhimanagar will not be removed. For 311 families living on Water Resources Department land, 51.18 acres have been given without any compensation. This land issue had been pending for 40 years. In the first phase, it is proposed to use 415.75 acres of government land in Bhimanagar-Ranjani, Tarategaon and Hingangaon. The administration said no fresh private land will be acquired beyond this.

The administration said there is no plan to set up green hydrogen or small modular reactors (a nuclear power project) in the Ujani area. The green hydrogen project has been dropped from the proposed plan. The data centre will not discharge chemical-laden dirty water; the cooling liquid will remain in closed pipes and no dirty water will be released into the Ujani reservoir. Water quality and environmental standards will be monitored. The administration said that with 91 per cent of the reservoir left open, a large area will remain for fishing and for aquatic life.

The project is expected to earn the Maharashtra Krishna Valley Development Corporation about Rs 180 crore a year. The money will be used for the upkeep and repair of the Ujani project and the water distribution system. Local infrastructure will also be developed from the company's CSR fund.

Students of local engineering and technical education institutes will get job and training opportunities. A separate project coordinator and local representatives from Bhimanagar, Tarategaon and Hingangaon will be appointed to address people's concerns. Collector Karthikeyan expressed confidence that the project will be implemented only with the interests of Ujani dam's water, farming, fishing and the environment in mind, and that it will speed up Solapur's development.