Saturday, July 27, 2013

Punjab to be power surplus by year end: Sukhbir

CHANDIGARH: Many companies have shown interest in investing in harnessing of solar energyin Punjab even as deputy chief minister Sukhbir Badal has stated that the state would be declared power surplus by end of this year. Twenty six companies have been handed over the letters of awards by the deputy chief minister for setting up solar power projects of 250MW in the state at a cost of Rs 2,500-3,000 crore.
Some of the big names in solar energy like Lanco Solar Energy, Punj Lloyd Infrastructure, Moser Baer Clean Energy, Essel Infra Projects, Asopus Infrastructure (India Bulls), Welspun Solar, Punjab; Azure Urja and Solairedirect Energy have preferred Punjab over other states. "We have set a target to generate at least 1,000MW power from renewable resources of energy in the next four years. After 250MW solar power projects, we will award 300MW biomass power plants shortly," said Badal. "Punjab was also exploring the possibility of setting up a mega solar park to promote clean and green energy in a big way," he said. The deputy chief minister said that with completion of three thermal power projects having joint generation capacity of 3,920MW power, the state was all set to become the first power surplus state in the country.
According to non-conventional energy minister Bikram Singh Majithia, the state was committed to draw full advantage of solar boom and would make concerted efforts to harness maximum resources in renewable energy sector.
He said that fiscal and financial incentives were being provided to encourage private sector participation in this area noticeably in terms of assured buy back of power by state utility. With a view to giving a thrust to rooftop solar power generation, a survey of government buildings, institutions has been completed and roof capacity of 60MW was immediately available to be harnessed, he added.

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