India announces 22.1GWs of projects
India's Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has made a number of announcements on its official site that outlines 25 large projects the country plans to roll out over the next five years. The combined total of these so called "˜Ultra Mega Solar Power Projects' is now at 22.1GW and each project will be a minimum of 500MW.
Jammu and Kashmir is the state that has scored the largset project that will have a capacity of a massive 7.5GW Andhra Pradesh will host the next largest which although much smaller will still come in at 2.5GW. Rajasthan picked up three 1GW projects and another one at 700MW.
The rest of the projects are spread across the states and the government has set strict guidelines as to how much the projects can cost with the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) determining that capital costs cannot exceed 6.91 crore INR per MW.
With a government predisposed to solar expansion the hope is that this programme can begin to seriously tackle India's energy shortages across rural areas and finally move the country's solar plans forward. With previous plans thwarted at the policy level there is a need to improve investor relations in the region.
