Thursday, January 30, 2014: The future of renewable energy utilisation in India is indeed ‘sunny’ as six state-owned companies have come together to set up the world’s largest single-location 4,000-MW ultra mega solar power project in Rajasthan. The joint venture company will be provided equity participation from BHEL, Solar Energy Corporation of India, Sambhar Salt Ltd, Power Grid, Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam and Rajasthan Electronics & Instruments.
The PSUs recently inked MoUs for the same. The project was born in August last year, and took a period of five months to come to the MoU stage. “The memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed today will need to get the approval of the Cabinet,” minister of heavy industries and public enterprises Praful Patel was quoted by PTI as saying. To talk of specifics: the JV firm will have equity participation of 26 per cent from BHEL, 23 per cent from SECI, 16 per cent from SSL, 16 per cent from Power Grid, 16 per cent from SJVNL while the remaining 3 per cent will come from REIL.
The project will come up on 19,000 acre of surplus land available with SSL in Sambhar, Rajasthan and will require an investment of Rs 75000 million in the first phase. The equipment will be supplied by BHEL, power evacuation by Power Grid, sale of electricity by SECI, operation & maintenance by REIL and project management by SJVNL. The department of heavy industry would set up a special purpose vehicle for executing the project.
Further, the project will be developed in different phases in 7-8 years, of which the first phase is planned to be set up in about 3 years. The same will be a 1,000 MW project while the remaining will come up in subsequent phases. The plant will employ photo-voltaic modules based on crystalline silicon technology and will come with an estimated life of 25 years.
