Budget 2015: 5 new mega power plants of 4,000 MW to be set up

India will set up five more ultra mega power projects, entailing investments of around Rs 1 lakh crore, the government said on Saturday.

"Five more ultra mega power projects (UMPPs), under the plug and play model will be set up with total investments of Rs one lakh crore," Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in his first full-year Budget for 2015-16.

UMPP is coal-based thermal power project that has 4,000 MW generation capacity.

The minister, however, did not announce the states where these projects are proposed to be set up.

Under the "plug and play" system coal blocks will be auctioned after they are granted various clearances to speed up and simplify mining and get better valuation, Jaitley said.

One such project is likely to be set up in power starved state of Bihar. The proposed plant in Bihar may be fed from a mine either in Jharkhand or Odisha.

Power Minister Piyush Goyal had said in November that sufficient number of coal blocks will be allotted for the purpose.

Power Finance Corporation (PFC) is the nodal agency for UMPPs in the country.

So far, 4 UMPPs have been awarded, of which Sasan (Madhya Pradesh), Krishnapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and Tilaiya (Jharkhand) have been bagged by Reliance Power. Tata Power is operating the Mundra UMPP in Gujarat.

India: World's largest solar plant that will generate 750 MW of power commissioned

The world's largest solar power plant that will generate 750 MW of electricity once completed was commissioned recently in India.

The solar power plant in Rewa district of Madhya Pradesh state in central India will overtake America's 550-megawatt solar project in California.

The 1,500 hectares of land on which the £417m (Rs 40bn) plant will come up is barren. It is hoped to be completed by August 2016.

The joint venture agreement between state-run PSU Urja Vikas Nigam and Solar Energy Corporation of India will invite tenders from developers by April.

In a bid to move to clean energy, India plans several ultra mega solar power projects in its states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.

The renewable energy ministry has proposed a gross budgetary support of £422m (Rs 41bn) for setting up 25 solar parks of 500 MW each and ultra mega solar power projects to add 20,000 MW green generation capacity in the next five years.

The country plans to install 100 GW capacity of solar power by 2022, a five-time increase from a previous target.

In comparison, China aims to achieve 100 GW of solar power capacity by 2020.

Solar parks with installations of multiple solar photovoltaic modules by various firms are expected to reduce costs owing to economy of scale. Smaller parks are also considered where tracts of contiguous land is difficult to acquire.

Problems of transmission in the country with losses of almost 24% and constraints in taking electricity to remote areas have seen solar power getting a boost.

India's renewable energy sector is looking at attracting $200bn in investments from several domestic and international firms.

While the country's plans to expand solar energy 30-fold to 100,000 MW in seven years could create many new jobs, the demand for huge chunks of land cumulatively larger than some of its metros has seen experts advocate a mix of large, medium and rooftop solar plants.

The global installed capacity of solar electricity has increased by six times between 2010 and 2013 to 135 GW from 23 GW.