IHS’s latest ‘Epc and integrator market share and project market tracker’ report lists Sterling & Wilson among the top 20 solar EPC companies in the world.
The India and global lists put the company ahead of well-entrenched Indian solar EPC players such as L&T ECC Solar, Mahindra EPC and Moser Baer. Sterling & Wilson has built over 200 MW of solar projects in India, and is currently executing various projects in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh totalling around 60 MW.
The Centre has cleared the proposal for a 4,000MW ultra mega-power project (UMPP) in Banka, a project designed to take care of Bihar’s energy requirements by the end of this decade.
The project is expected to be commissioned by 2019-20. The state would get 2,000MW from the plant as the Centre has allocated 50 per cent share from the plant to itself.
“We received a letter today (Wednesday) from the ministry of power giving its nod to set up a ultra mega-power project at Banka. We are happy that the Centre has acceded to our long-pending demand as the state would get 2,000MW power from this plant,” energy minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav told The Telegraph.
Any power project with an installed capacity to generate 4,000MW or more is deemed as an ultra mega-power project.
The state government had, on November 23, 2013, written to the power ministry seeking early approval of the project.
The state government said it would press the Centre to provide coal linkage to the project at the earliest.
“The state government is responsible for providing land and water for the project. We have made that available and accordingly informed the ministry of power. Now, the Centre has to provide coal linkage to the plant,” Yadav said.
Bihar at present gets around 1,500-1,600MW against the total scheduled allocation of around 2,000MW from the central sector.
The state also purchases 400MW from the open market besides getting 110MW from its own source from Muzaffarpur Thermal Power Station. The state government has set a target of providing at least 3,000MW in the coming summer and 4,000 MW by the end of the year.
The central decision on power comes close on the heels of the cabinet clearance to two railway projects in Bihar — at Madhepura and Marhowra — that had been gathering dust for a long time.
Central Electricity Authority (CEA), a nodal agency under the ministry of power which advises the government on energy issues, had in March 2013 approved the setting up of the ultra mega-power project at Kakwara in Banka district.
A team from CEA and Power Finance Corporation (PFC), along with state government officials, visited two sites to assess the project’s feasibility.
The team went to Kakwara in Banka and Rajauli in Nawada. The Kakwara site, about 260km from Patna, prima facie, appeared to be suitable for setting up the project, sources said, adding that there are no environmental issues related to it.
The project would require 2,500 acres of land and 120 cusecs of water.
Sources said the site at Kakwara in Banka fulfils all parameters such as easy availability of land, water and coal linkage. They said coal for the project could be transported easily by rail from neighbouring Jharkhand.
The site is also 65km away from Sultanganj from where the plant could draw 120 cusecs of water from the Ganga for power generation.
The clearance of the project is a big boost to the Nitish Kumar government which claims to have drastically improved the power situation in the state.
MBSL has been exporting solar PV modules to Japan for last 4 years and the volume of shipments has increased significantly in last 9 months. Japan's solar market is growing exponentially, driven by their focus on using renewable energy.
Vivek Chaturvedi, Chief Marketing Officer, Moser Baer Solar said, "Japan traditionally is amongst the world's most quality conscious markets and we are proud to have established an Indian brand in high technology space here. This reiterates India's capability to develop, manufacture and deliver world class products across categories globally. The opportunity is big and we look forward to further our commitments in Japan's journey towards promoting clean energy. A strong quality focus, and our understanding of Japan market sensitivities in general and Japan solar PV business in specific has resulted in this significant growth in shipments."
The earliest installation in Japan using Moser Baer Solar PV Modules is now almost three years old, performing at consistently better levels than estimated by the owners. Moser Baer Solar Elite PV Modules are already popular with Japan's biggest Solar EPC companies and Developers.
MBSL Elite Series products today meet international standards including UL, IEC, CE, JIS Q8901, MCS, and having listing under CEC, etc required to sell products across the globe. Furthermore, the company expects to be able to continue to reduce its production costs further through improved system processes and increased efficiencies.
Shares of Moser Baer India Ltd was last trading in BSE at Rs.3.69, up by Rs.0.03 or 0.82%. The stock hit an intraday high of Rs.3.79 and intraday low of Rs.3.55.
The total traded quantity was 0.97 lakh shares as compared to 2 week average of 3.26 lakh shares.
Renewable energy projects worth Rs 30,000 crore are being implemented in Madhya Pradesh, which have quietly reached out to companies and attracted GE, Reliance Power, Spanish wind major Gamesa and others, giving tough competition to Gujarat in the sector.
The buzz of activity has catapulted the state to the top slot of renewable energy in the country where Narendra Modi's Gujarat was hailed as the most successful state in the sector. MP's Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan has accelerated the state's drive for renewable energy, helping it expand rapidly and kickstart many projects, including 4,600 mw of being executed, state government officials said.
The state invited proposals in November 2012, seeking investments to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore, with the full backing of Chauhan. "The chief minister gave us a blank cheque and complete support to go ahead with our plan to develop renewable energy in the state.
The idea was to set a plan in place and first see the results on the ground rather publicise just a policy on paper," said S R Mohanty, secretary, new and renewable energy department, Madhya Pradesh. The state has made things easy for investors.
Renewable energy projects worth Rs 30,000 crore being implemented in Madhya Pradesh To set up a wind project, the developer has to just submit a resource assessment report of any site in the state. It applies for solar, bio and hydel as well, where if the selected site is government's land, the developer gets it for the life of the project i.e. 25 years.
In case of private land, the government facilitates the acquisition. Finding a good site and getting clearance for it is a major hassle in the wind sector. So when the land is made available by the government, it simplifies the whole process. The state's policy, no doubt is simple and transparent," said Sunil Jain, managing director, Hero Future Energies.
Hero has 208 mw of wind and 50 mw of solar power project underway in the state. While there is a National Solar Mission at the central level, state policies on solar power are quite ambiguous, the only exception was Gujarat.
The Modi-ruled state was an early mover in the sector even before the PM announced the national solar mission. In 2010, Gujarat signed around 88 solar power purchase agreements with 75 developers for 25 years with tariff as high as Rs 12.54 per unit without competitive bidding. But Gujarat backtracked on the tariff last year as tariffs of new projects fell to half of Gujarat's rates, compelling the state to appeal to apex electricity regulator for revision in tariff.
Gujarat has an installed capacity of 852 mw in solar and 3,114 mw in wind as on March 2013. MP however has given developers much more freedom to sell power. They can sell outside the state; take the national solar mission or renewable energy certificate route, or sign a PPA. Sanjay Chakrabarti, partner & cleantech sector leader at Ernst & Young said MP is the new Gujarat for renewable power producers.
"In the last one year, maximum addition in renewable based power capacity has happened in MP. More than the policy, it's the strict execution and political stability that has helped invite investments in the state," he said.
"Gujarat had an ambitious feedin tariff policy while MP has a bigger focus on projects not getting feed-in tariff. For such projects, the efficiency rate in MP is higher as there is government support in getting clearances, choice of sale of power and transmission infrastructure," said Bharat Bhushan Agrawal, senior analyst (solar) at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Sumant Sinha, founder and CEO of Renew Power said that MP could become an interesting state for investment in renewable.
"The state would see a good addition in solar and wind.It has a lot of room for investment with the government adopting a high degree of openness and facilitation," he said. Investors seem bullish about MP may be due to the ease of getting land, clearances and grid connectivity," said Agrawal.
Public sector hydropower major Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd's (SJVNL) maiden wind energy project in Maharashtra has started generation, a senior company official said in Shimla Wednesday.
"Fifteen of the 56 wind power turbines of 47.6 MW Khirvire project in Ahmednagar district have started generating energy," SJVNL deputy general manager Vijay Verma told agency.
The project, with an annual energy generation of 85.65 million units of electricity, would be fully commissioned by March this year, he said.
For its commissioning, SJVNL has entered into an agreement with Spanish company Gamesa Corporacion Tecnologica.
SJVNL is a joint venture between the central and the Himachal Pradesh governments. The former holds 74.5 per cent stake, while the remaining 25.5 per cent is held by the state government.
However, the central government sold 10 percent equity in May 2010.
SJVNL's maiden project in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh started generation in 2004-05.
Anticipating a power shortage of 11,000 MW by the end of 12th five year plan in Southern region (SR), Central Electricity Authority proposes to lay two high voltage direct current (HVDC) lines from Gujarat and Chhattisgarh with 6,000 MW capacity each to overcome power deficit faced by Southern states.
According to CEA estimate, total projected demand for SR comprising Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala at the end of 2016-17 would be 57,221 MW while the total availability would stand at 48,188 MW which includes generation by newly added power projects of 15,760 MW.
“The SR would be deficit of power due to high load growth and the fact that some of the planned generation projects, like Krishnapatnam Ultra Mega Power Project, Ind Barath, Yermarus, Edlapur, Kalpakkam, Udangudi and Cheyyur UMPP, among others are getting delayed. It was assessed that the SR would have deficit of 7000 to 11,000 MW of power by 2016-17,” said CEA sources.
A senior official of Power Grid Corporation of India said that to overcome the power crisis in the SR, many inter and intra regional transmission projects are to be undertaken. “We are planning to construct two lines from Gujarat and Chhattisgarh to SR to import the surplus power from there,” the official said.
A 800 Kv HVDC line would be laid between Raigarh in Chhattisgarh and Pugalur in Tamil Nadu with a capacity of 6,000 MW.
TANGEDCO along with Maharashtra State Mining Corporation proposes to set up a 4,000 MW pit head power station in a coal block jointly allocated to them in Chhattisgarh. The state would get 2500 mw as its share.
PGCIL official said that Gujarat could have around 6,000 MW of surplus power in the future.
“The surplus power from Gujarat can be imported to southern region to meet the deficit. Hence we are planning a 800 kv HVDC link from Gujarat to a suitable landing point in SR,” the official said, adding that total cost of the project be around Rs 12,000 crore.
A TNEB official said that execution of these transmission lines would ease grid congestion and enable power import from surplus regions in times of need.
