NTPC Ltd is on course to implementing the country’s largest 1 GW (1000 MW) solar photo-voltaic power generation park at Kadiri in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh.
Phase one of the project of 250 MW has been completed and has commenced power generation. The balance 750 MW will be completed by next fiscal, once all the clearances are secured and power purchase agreements inked, V.B. Fadnavis, Regional Executive Director (South), NTPC, said.
The power generation major NTPC has an installed capacity of 265 MW of solar photo-voltaic power generation in the South, which includes a 250 MW solar PV unit at Anantapur, a 5 MW unit at Port Blair in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands and a 10 MW solar PV plant in Ramagundam.
Phase I has been executed by Tata Solar (100 MW), Sterling and Wilson (50 MW), BHEL (50 MW) and Lanco (50 MW).
Phase II consisting of 750 MW is expected to be ready by March 2018.
Referring to other solar projects in the South in Telangana and Karnataka, NTPC officials said they are at various stages of approval and once they are in place, these projects would get into execution mode. In some cases, land allotments and other clearances are in process.
When completed, the Anantapur solar power park will be the largest single location solar unit in the country with an installed capacity of 1 GW. Another mega solar park of one GW is also being co-developed near Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh, where NTPC will be engaged with the state government and its utilities.
WIND ENERGY
With the southern states offering immense scope for setting up wind power projects, NTPC is at an advanced stage of evaluating the potential and expects to finalise its plans. This may even be solar-wind hybrids, though no decision has been taken as yet, Fadnavis said.
Source:The Hindu Business Line
