BENGALURU: With the world's largest solar park in its backyard, Karnataka will soon become a solar-powered state. The first phase of 2,000 megawatt (MW) solar park at Pavagada in Tumakuru district, about 180 km from here, is expected to be operational by April-May 2017."To start with, power sale agreements have been signed with the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) for supply of 600 MW power to the state through various electricity companies, including Bescom, which will get the highest share," said GV Balaram, managing director, Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Limited (KREDL).On the sidelines of 'European Climate Action Day - Challenges and innovative solutions' held in the city, Balaram said 13,000 acres of land has been taken on lease from farmers to develop the park. "The project will be completed by September 2018," he added. During the session, many experts presented their views on mitigating the challenges of climate change.Officers with the KREDL said though Rajasthan government has plans to set up a solar plant with a capacity of 4,000MW, it is yet to be realized and the next big such initiative at a single location is in California of USA with a capacity of 580 MW. "Once the plant is operational, we will be able to give full phase power to farmers in the region. At present, farmers get power to irrigate their fields mostly during night hours," said an official.To supply power to various places, three major transmissions lines will be drawn from Pavagada to Madhugiri in the same district, Hiryur in Chitradurga and Devanahalli in Bengaluru Rural.Source of green energy* The solar power generation plant will have a total capacity of 2,000 megawatt (MW)* It will come up in Pavagada taluk of Tumakuru district, 180km from Bengaluru*First phase of 600MW will be operational by April-May 2017*Entire project to be completed by September 2018. Four power stations are also being set up.*Project to supply power to villages in the region as well as electricity companies*13,000 acres of land at a rate of Rs 21,000 per acre per year has been taken on lease from farmers.Aim for sustainable citiesFor me, sustainable city is a better word than smart city. To mitigate climate change in India, we need to bring in efficiency in every sector, including irrigation, water usage, energy generation and consumption. The interconnection between water and energy sectors is also crucial. We are in a situation where 105 megawatt of power is needed daily to pump Cauvery water. Rejuvenation of traditional water systems, rain water harvesting at a large scale etc are need of the hour.Dr Mohan Kumar, chairman, Indo-French Cell for Water Sciences , IISc.Generally, politicians have shorter goals and hence it becomes necessary to build a political will to set up long-term goals to mitigate the effects of climate change. Through the Climate Parliament Steering Committee, efforts are made to educate select members of Parliament and other legislators on setting long-term goals and they, in turn, are educating fellow legislators. Setting up of a solar park and making a village in Dharwad solar empowered are some of the steps in this regard- Dinesh Gundu Rao, politician and chairman of the Climate Parliament Steering Committee, Karnataka chapterThe challenge for India in mitigating climate change is to be innovative and make use of available technology in the local context. In the energy sector, do we really need to go through "painful" exercise of setting up large power plants and transmission lines? There's a need for decentralized power generation and consumption. Even in case of water, there's a need to locally treat and reuse water. Bengaluru gets 14,000 MLD of water from Cauvery every day and another 700 MLD is procured from borewells. Sadly, only about 500 MLD is getting treated and the rest is sewage which is polluting our waterbodies.- Hari Hegde, senior vice president and global head - operations at Wipro.