Bengaluru, June 23 (IANS): Renewable energy development company SunEdison on Tuesday it has has completed executing a one megawatt canal top solar power plant for Karnataka's Krishna Bhagya Jala Nigam (KBJNL) which is responsible for the Krishna river and dam.

"We have installed and commissioned this canal top system on Krishna river bank for the Karnataka government. It is heartening to see other state governments embrace the use of solar technology... we pioneered for the Narmada canal top project in Gujarat in 2012," said SunEdison Asia-Pacific president Pashpathy Gopalan in a release here.

Canal top solar systems built on canals provide several unique benefits. They shield the canals from direct sunlight restricting water evaporation and free surrounding land for other uses, the release said.

They also save large amounts of water compared to fossil fuel generated electricity and operate at cooler temperatures than conventional land based systems, the release said.

Named after great inventor Thomas Edison, SunEdison is an American renewable energy giant operating in more than 1,000 locations worldwide.