Friday, June 14, 2013: The country has long been facing the problem of power cuts and rising electricity bills. In an announcement today, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy said that it is planning on a big sized project that would boost the efforts to a greater extent.
The proposed projects are the size of 500 MW and above. Tarun Kapoor, the joint secretary for MNRE said that this project is aimed at bringing up the volume of renewable energy in the country. While several states are already working on their own mega project, it’s time that the capital also gets its due.
Till now, the MNRE had been tendering projects the size 50 MW or less via the guidelines of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission but this would be a first from its pocket. In other states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Karnataka, mega projects are either being commissioned or executed through already existing solar power projects in order to meet the rising demand for electricity and the balance the escalating cost of power.
In Maharashtra recently, Mahagenco, a state owned power generation company was commissioned with a 125 MW photovoltaic solar project and this is the largest ever established in India.
Welspun energy too has come up with a 130 MW power generation plant in Madhya Pradesh under the state schemes. With the end of the first phase of JNNSM, the cost of power has significantly dropped and bids as low as Rs 6 was entertained. The ministry hopes that with the second phase in progress this could be further brought down to Rs 5.50.
