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Coal India Limited

Indian Coal Mining Company Sets 4 GW Solar Power Target

by Saurabh Mahapatra October 15, 2015

State-owned companies in India are looking to participate in the aggressive renewable energy investment drive currently being led by the private sector companies.

India’s publicly-owned lignite mining and power generation company Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) has announced plan to set up 4,000 MW of solar projects across various states of India. The project would entail an investment of up to $4.6 billion. The proposed projects would be set up in the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana and Rajasthan.

This announcement was made by B Surender Mohan, Chairman and Managing Director of Neyveli Lignite, at the time of inaugurating the company’s first 10 MW solar power plant under the National Solar Mission. Additionally, land has been identified in Neyveli Township for the installation of a 130 MW solar power project. Also, a decision has been made to set up a 25 MW solar power project at Barsingsar, Rajasthan, at a cost of $26 million. The company has been slowly increasing its renewable energy portfolio.

This is not the first time Neyveli Lignite has announced plans to set up solar power projects. In April of this year, the company announced plans to build 600MW of solar power projects, and the company intends to actively participate in the solar power auctions announced by the various state governments. The techno-economic viability studies and land allocation is believed to be underway for setting up of the projects.

The company is also building 51 MW wind farm at Kazhuneerkulam Village of Tirunelveli District. Out of a total of 34 turbines of 1.5MW capacity each, 9 wind turbines have already been commissioned, and the wind farm is expected to be fully operational by the end of this year.

Coal mining companies are under pressure from various environmental groups to source their coal in a more environment-friendly way to reduce their overall carbon footprint. Investing in renewable energy would help coal companies to fulfill their corporate social responsibility obligations. Last year, the world’s largest coal producer, Coal India Limited, made a similar announcement to develop 1 GW of solar projects across various states.

Last year, India doubled the tax on every metric ton of coal mined or imported in the country. The revenue generated from the coal tax would finance the National Clean Energy Fund (NCEF), which would be utilized for the development of renewable energy projects, environmental projects, and research and development projects.

October 15, 2015 0 comment

1 GW Of Solar Planned By Indian Coal Mining Firm

by Jake Richardson October 9, 2015

written by Jake Richardson

Coal India Limited (CIL) is reportedly planning to construct solar power projects in a number of areas of India totaling one gigawatt of capacity. CIL wants to reduce its carbon footprint and plans to finish a 250 MW installation in the Madhya Pradesh area within twelve months.

A memorandum of understanding was signed between the Solar Energy Corporation of India and CIL, but one issue that might delay the remaining 750 MW of projects is finding appropriate sites. Orissa, Bihar, and Jharkhand have been suggested as possible locations, as have Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra.

It’s commendable that a coal mining company would seek to reduce its carbon footprint — the thing is, it is basically being forced to. One gigawatt of solar is quite a large amount, but India is a massive country — one of the most populous on Earth. It has ambitious clean energy goals, and surely will achieve many of them, if not more.

Adding new solar capacity is not only about reducing climate change emissions, though. Solar power plants can be built faster than coal plants, so they have a value that coal plants do not, to fill in gaps in electricity supply. They also can help shore up electrical grids that are overburdened and serve somewhat as backups when there are disruptions.

Due to the decline in solar costs, they also simply make sense financially in some cases, where they are more cost-competitive than fossil fuels. They also don’t produce enormous amounts of harmful air pollution, and some urban centers in India have far, far too much of that already. It is very sensible of the government to require that its agencies and government-owned companies use cleaner energy.

Constructing solar power plants also creates a lot of new jobs, and sometimes these new plants are located in areas with high unemployment, so they contribute to local economies by providing clean energy jobs.

Image by Bernard Gagnon, via Wiki Commons

October 9, 2015 0 comment

PV Solar Projects

Indian Coal Mining Company Plans 600 MW Solar Power Projects

by Saurabh Mahapatra August 21, 2015

written by Saurabh Mahapatra

As per the guidelines issued by the Indian government, public sector companies are implementing plans to set up large-scale solar power projects.

According to a recent announcement, publicly-owned lignite mining and power generation company Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) plans to set up 600 MW of solar projects across various states of India. Through this announcement, the company plans to increase its total power generation capacity to 12.2 GW, from the current capacity of 2.74 GW.

According to the B Surender Mohan, Chairman and Managing Director, the company is in the process of setting up smaller solar projects with 10–15 MW of capacity each in Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan, with a total capacity of about 50 MW. Additionally, the company plans to set up a 100 MW solar project in Nevyeli for which land identification is underway. The company has been slowly increasing its renewable energy portfolio.

The company also had talks with Tamil Nadu and several other states for setting up higher-capacity solar projects. These projects will be implemented after carrying out techno-economic viability studies and land allocation.

Coal companies are under pressure from various environmental groups to source their coal in a more environment-friendly way to reduce their overall carbon footprint. Investing in renewable energy would help coal companies to fulfil their corporate social responsibility obligations. Last year, the world’s largest coal producer, Coal India Limited, made a similar announcement to develop 1 GW of solar projects across various states.

August 21, 2015 0 comment