Coal India to establish 1,000 MW of solar projects across India

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Coal India (CIL) has entered into a deal with Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) to establish solar power plants of total 1000 MW capacity in different parts of the country, including Andhra Pradesh and Telengana.

Coal and Power Minister Piyush Goyal stated this in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

LINKED : Coal India aims solar projects for carbon neutralization

In September, Coal India held discussions with New and Renewable Energy Ministry for installing a combined capacity of 1,000 MW in the country.

The utility was also in a process of identifying places for setting up solar projects worth Rs 7,000 crore.

Already, CIL has installed 2.00 MW in Mahanadi Coalfields and 0.20 MW in Central Mine Planning & Design Institute (CMPDI) to curtail carbon emissions.

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On an average, a solar power plant produces around Rs 7 crore per megawatt of clean energy.

In next four years, India government is expecting USD 100 billion investment in the renewable energy sector.

Renewables account for more than 70,000 MW of the country’s total installed power generation capacity of over 2,50,000 MW.

DON’T MISS India to have 55 GW of renewable energy capacity by Mar’17

Coal India accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic coal production and produced 462 MT million tons of coal in the last fiscal, missing its target of 482 MT.

However, the utility does not use coal for power generation, but the coal extraction has some adverse environmental effects including dust, air pollution, water pollution and land degradation.

The solar initiative is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan to provide 24×7 electricity, to boost country’s economic growth.

Sabeena Wahid
[email protected]