NEW DELHI: Public sector power behemoth NTPC will set up a 750-MW solar power plant in Rewa, Madhya Pradesh, at an estimated cost of over Rs 5,000 crore, chairman Arup Roy Choudhury told The Sunday Standard on the sidelines of the recently-concluded Global Investor Summit in Indore. On completion, this will be NTPC’s largest solar power plant. The power sector PSU has 10 solar power plants among which a 50-MW plant is already operational in Rajgarh, also in Madhya Pradesh.
Choudhury said, “We already have 202-MW installed capacity in solar power. This is our commitment to take the government’s initiative of clean energy further and provide more clean energy to the grid.”
Land for the plant has already been allocated and it will be operational “in a year from handing of the land,” the chairman said. He added that investment in the plant would be carried out in tranches of Rs 250 crore each, based on calculation of Rs 7 crore per MW. NTPC is targeting to scale up its solar power generating capacity to 3,500 MW in the next 5-7 years of which it plans to install generation to the tune of 1000 MW in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. NTPC is also scouting for land in Rajasthan as the state gets about 340 days of peak sunshine every year which is very conducive for generating solar power.
Regarding procurement of photovoltaic (PV) cells, the most essential component for solar power plants, Choudhury said, “We will invite domestic commercial bids to procure a part of the equipment from home-grown players. This will help domestic PV manufacturing augment their scales.”
He said, under the Make in India campaign, NTPC will invite bids from foreign manufacturers of PV cells. “We will request them to manufacture PV cells in India as this would lead to investments, employment generation and skill development of youth.”