NTPC solar plant in Ayodhya to launch operations partially on Jan 14
Full power generation at the 40 MW plant likely to begin by March 31. Also, foundation was laid for a 5 MW solar plant to be set up by IIA in Shamli on Saturday.
A 40-megawatt solar power plant being set up by the NTPC in Ayodhya is expected to begin partial operations on January 14, a week before the grand consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple. Meanwhile, the groundwork for a 5 MW solar plant being established by the Indian Industries Association (IIA) in Shamli kicked off on Saturday.
An official aware of the development said the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) had decided to start the plant with 10 MWs on January 14.
“Full power generation at the 40 MW solar plant for which the land has been provided by the state government will begin by March 31,” he said.
The NTPC’s Ayodhya solar plant is starting in a record time, of only two-three months since its works were launched, despite many legal hurdles during the land acquisition process. “Normally, solar plants have six to eight months of gestation period, but this plant is being started in a record time in view of the consecration ceremony of the Ram Temple,” the official said.
In October, UPNEDA, the state government’s nodal agency for development of renewable energy, handed over 80 hectares of government land at a village in Ayodhya sadar tehsil after winning a legal battle against the area’s sugarcane farmers.
The 40 MW plant will enable the temple town, also being developed as a ‘solar city’, to meet a large amount of its power demand even when a solar city, under the state government’s solar policy, is expected to meet at least 10% of the total demand through renewable power.
The government has decided to develop 18 cities in the state as solar cities that include all nagar nigams and Noida.
Meanwhile, the IIA is setting up its 5 MW plant on its own resources in the industrial area of Shamli. “The project’s foundation stone was laid in the presence of renewable energy department officials on Saturday,” IAA chairman (Shamli chapter) Anuj Kumar Gard told HT over a phone call. The government, according to him, will provide the net metering facility to them under which the IIA would be able to sell surplus solar power to the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL).
