ESPL was contracted by Enel Green Power for verification of the project activity “300 MW Thar Solar project in Rajasthan” in India. The verification was performed in accordance with the GCC Project standard/6/, GCC program manual and host country criteria, as well as criteria given to provide for consistent project operations, monitoring and reporting.

The review of the project submission form and the subsequent follow-up interviews have provided us with sufficient evidence to determine the fulfilment of the stated criteria. In our opinion, the project meets all relevant GCC criteria and all relevant host country criteria. The project correctly applies methodology GCCM001 v3.0.

The Project activity is not likely to cause any net-harm to the environment and/or society and complies with the environmental and Social Standard, and therefore requests the GCC Steering Committee to register the Project Activity, which is likely to achieve the requirements of the Environmental No-net-harm Label (E+) and the Social No-net-harm Label (S+).

The Project activity is likely to contribute to the achievement of United Nations Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs), comply with the Project Sustainability Standard, and contribute to achieving a total of 3 SDGs, which is likely to achieve the Silver SDG certification label (SDG+).

The Project Activity complies with all the applicable requirement of the GCC Program and ICAO’s requirements on CORSIA Emissions Unit Eligibility Criteria and CORSIA Eligible Emissions Units, as per Clarification No 1., v1.1 paragraph 21-23, and the ACCs expected to be issued during the crediting period is likely to be CORSIA eligible and can be used by International Airlines for offsetting their emissions during all phases of CORSIA and therefore requests GCC Steering Committee to append CORSIA Certification label (C+) to this project.

By generating renewable energy from solar energy resources, the project results in reduction of CO₂ emissions that are real, measurable and give long-term benefits to the mitigation of climate change. It is demonstrated that the project is not a likely baseline scenario. Emission reductions attributable to the project are hence additional to any that would occur in the absence of the project activity.

The total emission reductions from the project are estimated to be 6,289,305 tCO_2e over a fixed 10 year crediting period, averaging 628,930 tCO_2e annually. The emission reduction forecast has been checked and it is deemed likely that the stated amount is achieved given the underlying assumptions do not change. The monitoring plan provides for the monitoring of the project’s emission reductions. The monitoring arrangements described in the monitoring plan are feasible within the project design and it is confirmed that the project owners can implement the monitoring plan.

In conclusion, ESPL is of the opinion that the project activity “300 MW Thar Solar project in Rajasthan” in India, as described in the PSF Version 13, dated 28/12/2022, meets all relevant GCC requirements and all relevant host party criteria and correctly applies the baseline and monitoring methodology “GCCM001”, “Methodology for Renewable energy generation projects supplying electricity to grid or captive consumers”, version 3.0.

The project will hence be recommended by ESPL for registration with the GCC.