In keeping with its plan to attract investments worth Rs 23,000 crore in solar energy over the next 12-18 months, the Uttar Pradesh government is poised to sign an MoU with National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) for setting up a 100-mw solar plant in Jalon on Thursday, apart from handing letters of contract to as many as seven private companies for producing another 130 mw solar power in various parts of the state. The private companies that have shown interest and bid for the projects are Essel Infra (which will set up a 50-mw plant), Moser Baer and Sai Infra (which will set up 20-mw plants each) and Azure Power, Jagson, DK Infra and Reflex Energy (which will set up 10-mw plants each).
Speaking to FE, an official of the state government associated with the project said it would take 8-10 months to set up these plants. ?Private investors are free to set up the plants at any location of their choice where they can get land. The state government has no objection to it. And, if any project is built in the Bundelkhand region, the state has decided to bear the expenditure on the construction of transmission line and substation. On its part, the state government has fixed, through competitive bidding, the rate at which solar power would be sold by these companies. The rates will be in the bandwidth of R8.01 ? 9.33 per unit for the next 12 years,? the official said.
Giving details of the joint venture between the UP government?s Non-Conventional Energy Development Agency (NEDA) and NHPC, the MoU for which will be signed on Thursday, the official said it will be a 50:50 partnership between the two and the state government?s equity share will be in the form of providing government land in Jalon for the project. ?The rest of the equity will be pumped in by the NHPC. 50% of this power will be sold to UPPCL at a mutually agreed price while the rest can be sold outside,? he said.
Interestingly, solar seems to be the way forward for Uttar Pradesh, especially as thermal power projects are facing the brunt of severe coal shortage. Also, vast tracts of government land in different pockets in the state already available with NEDA are an attraction for other solar energy producers, who are interested in setting up more projects in the state. ?NEDA has approximately 700 hectare of land lying idle with it, which can be used for developing a vast solar network in the state,? the official said, adding that the commissioning of 230-mw solar power projects in one go has enthused other solar producers such as THDC to show interest in UP. ?We have got a proposal from THDC too for building another 100 mw solar project on the same lines as the NEDA-NHPC project. We are working on it and hope to finalise that too very soon,? he said.
Roughly, every mw of solar power requires an investment of approximately R10 crore. As a result, the 230 mw projects that are going to be commissioned on Thursday will see a cumulative investment of Rs 2,300 crore. ?This is just the beginning. If things go our way, we will soon become the largest solar power producers in the country,? the official added.