The Norwegian Prime Minister, Mr. Jens Stoltenberg, today made a visit to Rampura in Uttar Pradesh, the first village to get a Community Solar Power Plant by Scatec Solar. The visit comes as the company, together with Indian and Norwegian governments, is about to launch the scaling-up of the solar energy project for rural electrification in India. Indian and Norwegian governments in partnership with Scatec Solar will jointly finance the expansion from two to 32 villages, impacting approximately 1800 families.
With technology from Norway and sun from India, this project proves that private companies, government organisations and rural communities can work together to achieve sustainable development, says Prime Minister Stoltenberg.
He is in India to have talks with the Indian Prime Minister, Mr. Manmohan Singh and to attend the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit where he will deliver a keynote address. He took the opportunity to visit Rampura to examine the opportunities solar energy represents in bringing climate friendly power to areas that currently have no access to electricity. In 2008 Scatec Solar took the initiative to develop a sustainable and scalable model for off-grid solar systems in rural areas.
After a successful implementation of solar systems in two villages, Rampura and Gopalpura respectively, another 30 villages in India will now have Community Solar Power Plants (CSPPs) installed. The project target is to install approximately 300 kWp in those villages not currently connected to the electricity grid.
"Our intention with the two pilot projects was to demonstrate that decentralized solar PV is a viable solution for rural electrification. The support from the Norwegian and Indian governments is confirmation that given the right approach and the right partnerships, solar PV provides significant benefits for rural development," says Alf Bjørseth, founder and board member in Scatec Solar, host and guide for the Prime Minister in Rampura.
After the implementation of the two pilots fully financed by Scatec Solar, the company was invited by the Norwegian and Indian governments to expand the project. This public-private-people partnership is co-financed by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) 63%, the Indian Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) 30% and Scatec Solar for 7% of the total project costs. Indian Renewal Energy Development Agency (IREDA) will take care of the project monitoring.
With the expansion of the project, our ambition is to develop business models and financial vehicles to ensure a roll-out of village plants on a large scale, says Bjørseth, who is currently in Delhi in connection with the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit (DSDS), where he will give an intervention on 5 February.
Commercial aspects are being considered throughout the project. Examples of activities are silk reeling, flour mills, horticulture, butter churner and drip irrigation. To increase the local involvement and to assure that local interests are taken into account, the project engages five non-governmental organizations (NGOs), namely Pradan, Haritika, Srijan, Development Alternatives and Ledeg. The NGOs act as door openers into the project villages, and work to mobilize the villagers and analyze the needs of the community. The NGOs work with the villagers to promote the development of income generating activities which may take advantage of the arrival of electricity to the village.
An important outcome of this project is to make electrification of villages result in increased income generation and economic development in the villages, which also will ensure the sustainability of the project. This consists of a robust business model that is based on a local revenue scheme that is sustainable and easily replicable. The electricity tariffs are based on what villagers currently pay for different sources of energy, such as kerosene and diesel. Another major outcome of the project is the establishment of a Financial Advisory Group, whose mandate is to develop a new and innovative financial incentive scheme which may spur a rapid roll-out of CSPPs on a significant scale. The project villages are situated in four different states, namely, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Jammu and Kashmir.
The goals of Solar Mission may be reduced from 20,000 MW to 4,000 MW due to fund shortage, climate expert Sunita Narain has said.
"The 20,000 MW plan which envisaged a budget of Rs 270,000 crore has been found to be prohibitively expensive. The mission plan is to provide Rs 17.50 per MW feed-in tariff to solar power generators for 20 years," the member of the Prime Minister's Council on Climate Change said yesterday.
"Out of this, Rs 5.50 will be paid by the utilities and the central government will pay the rest. The Finance Ministry, however, has made clear that there was no way it could fund this (Rs.270,000 crore) money."
So, the goal is being reduced to 4,000 MW, which would cost the government Rs 90,000 crore over 20 years from the day the mission kicks off, Narain, who heads an NGO Centre for Science and Environment, said.
The goals will be formally unveiled by the Prime Minister on Monday.
The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission is one of the eight announced as India's National Action Plan on Climate Change and will be implemented under the close watch of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.
The mission will be implemented in phases with the Cabinet already approving setting up of 1,100 MW of grid solar power and 200 MW capacity of off-grid solar applications utilizing both solar thermal and photovoltaic technologies in the first phase.
The government has sanctioned Rs 4,337 crore for initial work in this regard.
The solar mission also proposes to ease duty regime on import and production to give a fiscal incentive to private players.
Topsun Energy Ltd., a solar modules manufacturer and turnkey SPV power plant solution Provider Company is planning to set up a 5 MW grid connected power plant in state of Gujarat, India.
The company has sought clearance from the state government for 5MW power plant. The project is likely to start in next 2 months and completion is expected by end of 2010.
The company says that it has capability to take complete turnkey projects, from consultancy to the installation.
The estimated investment will be over INR 1000 million with system life of 25 years.
Topsun with its existing distribution network has plans to spread out its business network across the world. The company says that it is confident that in the coming years it will be implementing more and larger projects related to the harnessing of solar energy.
PLG Power, a Mumbai based manufacturer of crystalline Solar PV modules and a turnkey EPC Solution provider of solar PV power plants is planning to set up an aggregate of 60 MW solar PV grid connected power plants in 2010. They will be located in the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan and West Bengal.
The total investment outlay is estimated at USD 200 Million.
Mr. Pramod Goel, Chairman of PLG Power said that the company has been allotted a capacity of 40 MW in Gujarat and 10 MW in West Bengal. The allotment from Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh is under process. The entire 60 MW of energy generation from these power plants will generate revenue of $32 million every year for the entire life of 25 years of the plant.
Mr.Punit Goyal, Managing Director of PLG Power said that by virtue of PLG's expertise in setting up Solar PV Grid connected power plants, company is already in negotiations with a number of project developers to provide turnkey EPC solutions to setup a total of 100 MW solar PV grid connected power plants by 2011.
During the year 2010 and 2011, PLG Power will execute EPC contracts with investors and project developers to the extent of 40 MW apart from its own 60 MW in various states of India. The total revenue from these EPC contracts is estimated to be around $144 Million.
PLG POWER is also planning to setup solar farms in Europe and USA and offer turnkey EPC solutions for project developers.
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