The state of Madhya Pradesh is planning a 1GW floating solar array that would be the world’s largest, according to reports from India.

The floating solar plant is planned for India’s largest reservoir on the Indira Sagar Dam in Madhya Pradesh, in central India, said the Times of India, quoting the state’s renewable energy minister.

“We have done preliminary studies and now [the] World Bank is preparing feasibility reports,” Manu Shrivastava told the newspaper.

A 1GW plant would dwarf the world’s current largest floating PV array, a 150MW project in Anhui, China.

Development would cost around 50bn rupees ($700m), according to Shrivastava, who hopes work on the project can start in about 8 months. The Madhya Pradesh would act as offtaker for 200MW from the plant, the report said.

Floating solar arrays are an increasingly attractive option for large-scale PV deployment at reservoirs and alongside hydropower facilities, especially where land use is constrained elsewhere, according to a World Bank report on the sector published last year.

About 1.1GW of floating solar was in place globally by mid-2018, the World Bank said.