State-run NTPC has decided to add around 301 mw of solar power by March 2014, taking a year more than the national solar mission?s target of achieving 1300 mw of solar generation by 2013.
Chandan Roy, director, operations, told FE that although NTPC?s solar capacity addition was not on the account of the projects being allotted by the ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) for the first phase of the national solar mission, ?the MNRE is likely to take into account
NTPC?s solar power projects in its national solar mission target?.
?NTPC, as a Navaratna company, can take its own decision to spin off projects and it is only the NTPC board that needs to approve new ventures,? Roy said.
The NTPC board on December 29, 2009 has given the approval for the solar venture, he added.
NTPC, with an installed capacity of 30,644 mw, currently generates power from coal and gas only. Roy said although NTPC has prepared a road map for 301 mw of solar power generation, investments on account of it has not been decided as yet.
? We will decide on our investments after we work out the cost of implementing every specific project,? Roy said.
Of the 301 mw, 190 mw will be harnessed through solar thermal technology and the remaining 111 mw will be solar photo-voltaic (PV) generation.
The company has only finalised implementing a grid interactive 15 mw solar thermal project at its Anta power station in Rajasthan. ?The DPR (detailed project report) for it is at an advanced stage of completion,” Roy said.
However, officials said as the first step towards the target, the company has planned another 25 mw of solar thermal generation in either Rihand or Singrauli besides the 15 mw generation at Anta and another 6 mw of solar PV generation at Andaman and Nicobar islands.
The MNRE has already made NTPC the nodal agency to purchase all power generated from solar projects, while also deciding to have a single generation tariff for solar power merging the state tariff with that of the Centre?s.
NTPC has already floated a separate company, NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Ltd, to purchase all grid interactive solar generation across the country before pushing it to the power mix in the grid. But for generating solar power, NTPC doesn?t have any plans of floating a separate company as of now. The solar portfolio would come under NTPC Ltd, Roy said.
Besides entering into generation of green energy, the company has laid thrust on hydro generation for a balanced portfolio.
NTPC is implementing three hydel projects ? two in Uttarakhand and one in Himachal Pradesh?adding up to a capacity of 1,920 mw.