Indian Power Sector

Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) has sent a letter seeking financial assistance for establishing 17 co-generation plants in cooperative and public sector sugar mills with an aggregate installed capacity of 234 MW on Built Own Operate and Transfer (BOOT) basis.The Ministry promotes promotion of bagasse co-generation projects in sugar mills including cooperative and public sector sugar mills providing central financial assistance.However,presently the scheme does not have provision to provide assistance for such projects set up on BOOT basis.

The cost of solar photovoltaic (PV) modules has reduced during the last five years. As per some of the estimates the reduction is from average cost of US $ 4,200 per kW to US $ 2,700 per kW. During the same period, in India the average cost has reduced from about Rs. 1,80,000 per kW to Rs. 1,45,000 per kW. The present trend indicates that the cost will continue to decline due to global R&D efforts, expanded utilization of solar PV modules for various applications and volume production. Some of the international reports have projected that in the next five years, the cost of PV modules could come down to US $ 1,000 1,500 per kW.Indian cost of PV modules is also expected to reduce on the same line to Rs. 60,000 80,000 per kW by that time

Astonfield Solar Private Limited, Mumbai, which is a part of the Astonfield group, has informed that the company is pursuing setting up of solar power projects in West Bengal (5MW), Haryana (3MW), Karnataka (10MW) and Gujarat (200MW). The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has received a proposal from the company to set up a 5 MW capacity grid interactive solar power plant at Bankura in West Bengal. The company has estimated that about 7 million units of electricity can be generated from the plant. The company has recently submitted information about some of the clearances obtained by them from the local authorities.