KREDL moving fast to achieve solar power production target

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, Dec 19, 2015:  Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Ld., (KREDL) is racing ahead to meet the target of producing 1,000 MW of solar power, even as the national target is the production of 100 GW by 2022 under the National Solar Mission.

The agency had invited tenders for power production and would continue to do it periodically to rope in as many producers as possible, said Vidya Rani, Assistant General Manager (off-grid), KREDL. She was participating in an interaction meeting on ‘Renewable energy-solar top power plants’, organised by Laghu Udyog Bharathi, Karnataka, here on Thursday. The agency had so far commissioned units producing 124 MW solar power and more were in the pipeline, Ms. Rani said. The Union government had specified various segments from which the 100 GW solar power would have to come, including solar parks, unemployed graduates, State government and undertakings and solar rooftops. The Union government was keen on ensuring that the solar power fed to the grid should go up from the present 0.25 per cent to at least 3 per cent by 2022.

Ms. Rani said that the State government had set a target of producing 1,200 MW of solar energy under its revised Solar Policy 2014-2021. KREDL was in the processing of executing the target by e-tendering, she said.

Reduced cost

Stating that the cost of solar power production has reduced drastically over the years due to improved technology, Ms. Rani said Rs. 5 crore to Rs. 6 crore was now needed to produce 1 MW of power against Rs. 15 crore a couple years ago. Similarly, the cost of producing one KW rooftop power ranges from Rs. 70,000 to Rs. 1 lakh, she said.

It is high time that every household resorted to rooftop solar power production as adequate light was available at least for 320 days in a year. The returns too were attractive while the quantum of subsidy had been increased from 15 per cent to 30 per cent of the project cost, Ms. Rani said. The rates offered in Karnataka (Rs. 9.56 per unit without subsidy and Rs. 7.20 with subsidy) were the highest in the country, she said.

Agreement

If the domestic rooftop producer enters into an agreement with electricity supply companies before March 31, 2018, the above rates are assured to be offered for a period of 25 years.

 

Courtesy: The Hindu