Wednesday December 10, 2014: Coal India has inked a contract with Solar Energy Corporation of India for establishing solar power plant with total capacity of 1000MW across different parts of the country.
Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal mentioned in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, “Recently, CIL (Coal India) has signed MoU with Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) to install 1,000 MW solar power plants in the solar parks in different parts of India including Andhra Pradesh and Telengana to be identified by SECI, in a phased manner.”
He further added that 2.2MW of solar power projects have already been installed by CIL in two of its subsidiaries involving 2.00MW in Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd while 0.20 in Central Mine Planning & Design Institute Limited to eradicate carbon emissions.
He, then, referred to the effects of coal extraction on environment like dust, air pollution, water pollution and land degradation, while emphasizing on the fact that Coal India is a mining company and doesn’t use coal for the industrial needs like power generation. While indicating towards the efforts adopted to control these effects, he told, “Adequate measures are taken by the project proponents to mitigate these effects as per the approved environment management plans.
