Reliance Power has been awarded the right to develop a total of 470 MW worth of CSP by the Indian government under the first phase of its National Solar Mission (NSM). The latest 100 MW project will be located near the village of Dhursar in the Jaisalmer district of Rajasthan. The site is said to have one of the highest levels of direct sunlight in the country.
The plant is scheduled for completion in May. It is expected to cost a total of $415 million. In addition to the ABD loan, other bilateral agencies and local commercial lenders will provide funds. "It will be the first thermal solar energy plant built by Reliance Power, a listed company of the Reliance ADA Group," said the company in a statement released.
Michael Barrow, director in ADB's Private Sector Operations Department added, "We hope that the success of this project will spur others to invest in the solar energy sector, which has massive potential in India."
In an interview with pv magazine at the start of March, the ADB's Seethapathy Chander said the bank financed about 200 MW worth of solar projects in India in 2011 between 160 and 170 MW has since come online. This year, Chander said around 300 MW will be financed.
In related news, Naoki Sakai, senior energy specialist from the ADB announced at the end of last week that $500million would be made available to the Gujarat Government. The funds are expected to go towards research and development of solar, vocational training with the Pandit Deen Dayal Petroleum University, and the development of smart grids and a second solar park in Gujarat.
Overall, the Indian government is targeting two gigawatts (GW) of installed solar power by 2013, 10 GW by 2017, and 20 GW by 2022.
Popular content
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
Share
Becky Beetz
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.