MPPSC 2026 Prelims Paper-I · Question 82 of 100

Correct — D, 61,660 Megawatt. This is the solar figure the Madhya Pradesh Economic Survey 2024-25 carries for the state as on October 2024, and the official MPPSC key marks (D). Note what the number actually is: 61,660 MW (61.66 GW) is the solar energy capacity assessed for Madhya Pradesh in the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy's state-wise assessment — i.e. what the state's land and irradiance can support — not panels already on the ground. Madhya Pradesh's installed solar capacity in 2024 was only a few gigawatts. The other three options are the same digits reshuffled, so this is a pure figure-recall question: fix 61,660 and the shuffles collapse.

• (a)60166 Megawatt — A digit-shuffle of 61,660. No official document reports 60,166 MW for Madhya Pradesh's solar capacity.
• (b)66610 Megawatt — Another rearrangement of the same digits; not a figure from the Economic Survey or MNRE for the state.
• (c)66160 Megawatt — Also a shuffle, and the closest visually to the correct number — swapping the first two digits (61 → 66) is the standard way this option set is built.

There are three different 'solar numbers' for a state and exams move freely between them: assessed potential (what the state could ultimately install, from MNRE's state-wise assessment), sanctioned/under-construction capacity, and installed capacity (actually commissioned and feeding the grid). For Madhya Pradesh the assessed solar figure is about 61.66 GW — placing it among the top few states in the country after Rajasthan — while its installed solar capacity in 2024 stood at only a few GW. Madhya Pradesh is nonetheless a genuine solar leader in project terms, with the 750 MW Rewa Ultra Mega Solar Park and the Omkareshwar floating solar project on the Narmada reservoir.

Two disciplines save you here. First, read the number's scale before you read the option: 61,660 MW is more than half of India's entire installed solar fleet, so it cannot be one state's panels — that tells you the Survey is quoting capacity in the potential sense, and it also tells you the answer must be the '61,660' family, not a random large number. Second, when all four options are anagrams of one another, no reasoning will separate them — only the memorised figure will. MPPSC lifts such figures verbatim from the state Economic Survey every year, which is why the Survey's energy chapter is worth reading directly.

• MP Economic Survey 2024-25 solar figure for the state, as on October 2024: 61,660 MW (61.66 GW) — the answer marked in the official key
• The same 61.66 GW is MNRE's assessed solar capacity for Madhya Pradesh; the state's installed solar capacity in 2024 was only of the order of a few GW
• Rewa Ultra Mega Solar Park (750 MW), Rewa district — one of India's largest single-location solar parks
• Omkareshwar floating solar project on the Narmada reservoir in Khandwa district — 278 MW commissioned in October 2024, part of a 600 MW plan
• Rajasthan holds the largest assessed solar capacity of any Indian state and also the largest installed solar capacity

• Treating an assessed-potential figure as installed capacity — the single biggest confusion in renewable-energy questions
• Option sets made of the same digits reshuffled; there is no way to reason your way in, so the figure must be memorised
• Ignoring the date qualifier ('up to October 2024'); renewable capacity numbers change every quarter and the same question with a different month has a different answer

MPPSC lifts energy figures straight out of the Madhya Pradesh Economic Survey and offers digit-shuffled options; UPSC almost never asks the number and instead tests the concept — net metering, the largest solar park, floating solar, or which body fixes solar tariffs.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Rewa Ultra Mega Solar Park, one of India's largest single-location solar projects, has an installed capacity of:

  • (a)250 MW
  • (b)500 MW
  • (c)750 MW
  • (d)1000 MW

  Answer(c) 750 MW — three units of 250 MW each, in Rewa district of Madhya Pradesh.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following is an advantage claimed for floating solar photovoltaic projects over ground-mounted solar plants?

  • (a)They generate power at night as well
  • (b)They avoid the use of land and reduce evaporation from the water body
  • (c)They do not need any grid connection
  • (d)They work without inverters

  Answer(b) They avoid the use of land and reduce evaporation from the water body — the standard rationale for reservoir-based projects like Omkareshwar.