NLCIL wins bid to set up 709 MW solar power project in State

Company will also participate in bid for 500 MW wind project

Solar mission: NLC India Limited Chairman-cum-Managing Director S.K. Acharya, third from left, addressing a press conference in Neyveli on Saturday.

NLC India Ltd. has bagged orders to set up a 709 MW solar power project in Tamil Nadu, S.K. Acharya, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of NLCIL, said on Saturday.

He told presspersons here that the tendering process to finalise the agency for implementing the project had began.

NLCIL will be participating in the bid for a 500 MW wind energy project in Tamil Nadu.

In addition to the existing 10 mW solar power project in Neyveli, the corporation has begun constructing a 130 MW solar power plant. Around 38 MW of solar power of this project was commissioned on August 23, he said.

Augmented capacity

The public sector mining company has commissioned 51 mW wind power in Tamil Nadu and has planned to install plants with a net capacity of 500 MW in different parts of the State.

The Letter of Acceptance (LoA) has been issued and the project is expected to be commissioned by March 2018. This was part of NLCIL’s solar mission of adding 4,000 mW through installation in various parts of the country.

Mr. Acharya said that under the Government of India’s green energy initiative, the installed capacity of NLCIL in the renewable energy sector would be 4,251 MW of solar and wind power in various States by 2019.

NLCIL plans to achieve a lignite mining capacity of 62.15 million tonnes per annum, coal production of 31 million tonnes per annum and power generating capacity of 20,971 MW from lignite, coal and renewable energy by the end of 2025, he added.