Tata Power, India's largest private sector power utility, today said that it would commission its 3 Mw solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant in Maharashtra by the end of this year.
Tata Power also plans to install solar capacity in Gujarat to meet its target of having 20-25 per cent of total capacity from "zero-carbon power" by 2017, a company statement said here today.
"We are very happy to announce that our 3 Mw solar power is progressing well and will be commissioned later this year," Tata Power Executive Director (Strategy and Development) Banmali Agrawala said.
Tata BP Solar is the technology provider for the project, being built at Mulshi in the Western Ghats, the statement said.
The project will be Tata Power's and Tata BP Solar's first experience with building, operating, and maintaining a megawatt-scale grid-connected solar power plant in India.
Given the modular nature of the system, the execution period for this project is relatively short, it said.
There are two types of solar power generation technologies--solar PV and solar thermal technologies.
In the former, solar power is directly converted into electricity, the statement said.
In systems using solar thermal technologies, solar energy is utilized to heat up a medium, which, in turn, runs an engine to generate power.
Solar PV technology surpasses solar thermal technology in terms of installed capacity, it said.
The company said that it has of its own accord set itself targets for increasing the power it generates through renewable sources.
"The company strategy emphasises the development of clean energy generation from renewable sources to balance the carbon intensity from major coal-based capacity and to contribute towards energy security of the country," the statement said.
In the wake of the announcement of the National Solar Mission by the Government of India and policy incentives therein, Tata Power's ambition for solar power generation has been bolstered to 300 Mw by 2013.
The company had set up its first solar power plant of 100 kW in 1996 at Walwan in Lonavla, it said.
