THE MINISTER OF NEW AND RENEWABLE ENERGY (DR. FAROOQ ABDULLAH)
(a),(b),(c),(d)&(e): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.
Statement
Statement referred to in Parts (a) to (e) of the Lok Sabha Starred Question No.229
for 12-03-2010
(a) & (b): Yes, Madam. Government has launched the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar
Mission to develop solar energy technologies to make solar power competitive to conventional
grid power by 2022. The Mission will be implemented in three phases. Government has approved
the target to set up 1,100 MW grid connected solar plants, including 100 MW capacity plants
as rooftop and small solar plants for the first phase of the Mission till March, 2013. NTPC
Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN), the trading subsidiary of NTPC, is the nodal agency for purchase
of 1,000 MW capacity of grid solar power (connected to 33 KV and above grid) from the project
developers at a tariff fixed by Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) for purchase
of solar power. NVVN will sign a PPA with each project developer for a period of 25 years as
fixed by CERC. For each MW capacity of solar power for which PPA is signed by NVVN, Ministry
of Power will allocate to NVVN an equivalent MW capacity from the unallocated quota of NTPC
stations. NVVN will bundle this with solar power and sell this power at a rate fixed as per
CERC regulations. The utilities will be entitled to use solar power to meet their renewable
power obligation (RPO).
100 MW capacity roof top and small grid connected solar power plants will also be supported
in the first phase of the Mission. The tariff for purchase of solar power from such solar
plants will be fixed by the State Electricity Regulatory Commissions and the Ministry will
provide a generation based Incentive for power fed to the grid.
Under the Mission no specific locations have been identified by the Ministry. The
project developers are expected to set up solar power plants on build, own and operate basis
any where in the country, depending upon the availability of land, solar resource and other
facilities.
In addition, 200 MW capacity equivalent off-grid solar applications and 7 million
square metre solar thermal collector area are also proposed in the first phase of the
Mission, till 2012-13. The off-grid applications may be supported through subsidy and/or
soft loan at 5% annual interest rate depending up on the category of users.
The Mission will also support research and development to reduce cost, improve
efficiency and overall performance of solar energy systems and also for development of
new materials and devices.
(c): During 2009-10, four solar power plants of megawatt size capacity have been
installed in Karnataka (6 MW), Punjab (1 MW) and West Bengal (1 MW). In addition, two
solar plants of 1 MW capacity each in Karnataka and Punjab and three plants of total
142 kW capacity in Delhi have been sanctioned for tail-end grid connection.
(d) & (e): Currently, there is no specific proposal under consideration in the Ministry
to set up a solar valley to augment the solar energy generation in the country. However,
over a period of time, setting up of a large number of solar power plants in a specific
region, on the basis of availability of land, solar resource and other facilities could
help in development of solar valleys.
