CHANDIGARH: The Punjab Government has initiated an ambitious program to install rooftop photovoltaic solar systems in 120 police stations in the state for power generation.  

Bikram Singh Majithia, Non Conventional Energy Minister, today said that Punjab Energy Development Authority would soon embark on a major programme for these installations in order to increase usage and popularize Solar PV technology for power generation. 

He said that these solar PV systems would be installed in all 120 police stations in the state and each system would generate 2.5 KW power for powering lighting and computer loads in the police stations. He said that the total cost of this project was Rs 6.6 crore.

Reiterating the resolve of Punjab Government to install Solar Power Systems on all government buildings by the end of 2017, Majithia said that the power generated through these rooftop systems would replace conventional energy and also provide backup power during grid shut downs. 

He said that PEDA was already promoting the installation of rooftop PV Power Plants in which capital subsidy was being provided as per the guidelines of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy guidelines, GOI. He said that these projects would also reduce generation cost, which was in the range of Rs. 6-7/Kilowatt hour in the long term and which was also almost comparable to the tariff being charged by the PSPCL from its consumers.

Divulging the details of rooftop solar power systems, Majithia said that PEDA has also carried out a detailed rooftop survey of major Government Buildings in the State and estimated potential was 40 MW. He said that solar power generated from the rooftops would also replace conventional power and provide backup power to buildings during grid outage including surplus power being exported to the PSPCL grid.

CHENNAI, MARCH 1:  

Kiran Energy today announced that it has commissioned a 55 MW DC solar voltaic power project in Rawra village of Jodhpur district of Rajasthan. With this, Kiran Energy’s portfolio of solar projects in the country totals 80 MW.

The company is also building clusters of solar projects in several States, including Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu. These clusters will have projects of capacities between 50 MW and 100 MW, Kiran Energy said in a press release.

L&T and Mahindra EPC did the ‘engineering, procurement and construction’ work for the 55 MW Rawra plant.

The 55 MW capacity is really three separate projects, with separate power purchase agreements with NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN), a power-trading subsidiary of NTPC. These projects were won under the second batch of Phase I of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission.

Kiran Energy now operates the largest solar power plant cluster of 60MW with a combined evacuation at a single location in India, the release says.

The plant is expected to produce an average of more than 90,000 megawatt-hours of clean electricity per year, equivalent to the annual electricity needs of more than 2.75 lakh Indian households, reducing carbon emissions to the extent of 80,000 tonnes annually.

Kiran Energy is one of the leading clean energy utilities that has been developing and operating solar power projects across India. In Rajasthan and Gujarat, it now operates an aggregate of over 80MW power plants.

CHANDIGARH: A sum of Rs 16.25 crore has been allocated to UT administration for implementation of Model Solar City Programme. Ministry for new and renewable energy has already chosen Chandigarh as one of the cities to be developed into a solar city. Six rooftop solar photovoltaic power plants have been set up with power generation capacity of 975KW.

Though, The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI) had chalked out the broad outline in 2009, work on ground could not begin as the proposal was pending with the ministry of new and renewable energy for allocation of funds. According to the plan, a 25 Mega Watts solar photo voltaic (PV) plant would also be set up. As of now, UT has no electricity generation of its own. In its pre-feasibility report, TERI has identified 24 of the total 900 small and big parks being maintained by the municipal corporation, which could be looked as potential locations for tapping solar power.

CHENNAI, MARCH 1:  

The Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation, which has received investment commitments to set up power plants that can generate over 200 MW, has given bidders some more time to submit commitment letters, according to industry sources.

As of Thursday when the utility’s Board met, it had received letters of commitment from bidders to set up “a little over 200 MW” of solar power generation capacity, according to reliable sources.

It is optimistic of receiving some more investment commitments and hopes to tie up for a total of about 250 MW, the source said.

In January, the Tangedco had called for bids from investors to set up decentralised solar power generation facilities across the State. It had hoped to attract proposals for about 1,000 MW of capacity and enter into a 20-year power purchase agreement.

Over 90 bids totalling about 500 MW were submitted with quotes ranging between Rs 5.47 a unit of electricity to up to Rs 18. After assessing the proposals the utility made a counter offer of Rs 6.48 a unit.

Individual investors who planned to avail of accelerated depreciation benefits have largely committed to the offer. Larger, utility scale players looking at standalone projects have not been so enthusiastic, according to industry sources.

Among the large players, Sun Edison, a US-based solar power project developer, which had bid for a total of 50 MW has committed to set up a 10-MW facility, according to sources in the know.