Big players line up for solar projects in Haryana

Financial Express
Preeti Parashar
Posted online: Saturday , May 10, 2008 at 0105 hrs

Chandigarh, May 9 With the tariff for generation of power through solar energy being fixed at an attractive rate of Rs 15.96 per unit by the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission (HERC), the state is confident of attracting top corporate houses to set up solar power projects.

Being the fourth state after Rajasthan, Punjab and West Bengal to announce tariffs for power generation through solar energy, Haryana is hopeful to lead the race with maximum tariffs so far. A few leading groups like Reliance Industries Ltd, Albina Power (Indiabulls company), ACME Telepower, Epuron Renewable Energy Power, Emco, RS India Wind Energy and Admire Energy Solutions (Moser Baer company) etc have already evinced interest in producing power from solar energy in Haryana.

Sumita Misra, director of Haryana Renewable Energy Development Agency (HAREDA) told FE, "We invited expressions of interest and have received 20 proposals from Independent Power Producers (IPP) with a capacity of producing 127 mw from solar energy.

Processing is on and the projects will soon be allocated to the companies. HERC has fixed an attractive tariff rate of Rs 15.96 per unit for projects to be commenced upto December 31, 2009 and Rs 15.16 per unit for projects commencing between December 31, 2009 and March 31, 2010.

The centre, under its scheme to promote electricity generation through solar energy, is providing generation based incentives at Rs 12 per unit for solar photovoltaic power and Rs 10 per unit for solar thermal technology for number of units sold to the state power utilities."

The solar insolation level of Haryana is in the range of 5.5 kwh to 6.5 kwh per sq mt of area and there is a huge potential for using solar energy for various thermal and electrical energy applications in the state. Haryana is likely to earn about Rs 20-25 crore per mw of electricity generated from these projects.

The maximum installed capacity of solar power generation in the country is about 200 kw at present and to promote this green technology, the new and renewable energy ministry has set a target of generating 50 mw from solar energy for the entire country with 25 mw of power to be generated by 2010-11 and a state not producing more than 10 mw through solar power projects. A major challenge for the IPPs seems to be the escalating land prices in Haryana.