Ministry of New & Renewable Energy okays 18 Mw solar rooftop plan in Odisha

The Ministry of New & Renewable Energy ( MNRE) has given its nod to Odisha for setting up an 18 Mw solar rooftop project.

A pioneer in rooftop solar projects in the country, Odisha, has firmed up plans to scale up capacity by covering key cities and towns.

Odisha expects to better the performance of other states in the scale of implementation of solar roof top projects.

The state has already executed 4 Mw roof top projects in the twin cities of Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. The projects were executed by Azure Power Mercury Pvt Ltd.

“The Ministry has given its approval for replication of the roof top project in Odisha of 18 Mw capacity similar to the twin city roof top project. About 600 government buildings covering 17 cities and towns will be used for generating solar energy in PPP (public private partnership) mode, ” said an official.

The towns identified for coverage by solar rooftop projects are Sambalpur, Burla, Hirakud, Rourkela, Puri, Khurda, Berhampur, Chhattrapur, Jeypore, Koraput, Sunabeda, Balasore, Bhadrak and Baripada. Buildings without solar rooftop projects in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar are also likely to be included.

The developers will be selected trough a tender to be floated by state run Green Energy Development Company Ltd (Gedcol) after withdrawal of the model code of conduct (for elections), he added.

The cost for development of 1 Mw of rooftop solar project is roughly estimated at Rs 7 crore.

Developers will get about 30 per cent subsidy from the ministry which will be routed through Gedcol, the official said.

In its Renewable Energy Policy-2016, the state government plans to touch 2200 Mw of solar energy capacity by 2022.

Odisha receives an average solar radiation of 5.5 kWh/square meter area with an average Capacity Utilisation Factor (CUF) ranging from 15-17 per cent across the districts and around 300 clear sunny days every year.