NLC lines up $3.4 billion green energy plan with 7GW target
NLC lines up $3.4 billion green energy plan with 7GW target
NYEVELI: NLC (formerly Nyeveli Lignite Corporation) will invest about $3.4 billion in expanding renewable energy capacity by 394% to almost 7GW (gigawatts), as the state-run lignite/coal and thermal power producer looks to reduce its carbon footprint in line with India’s 2070 net-zero target, company chairman Prasanna Kumar Motupalli told TOI.
Easily the largest green investment committed by any state-run coal company in the country, the outlay accounts for a third of the company’s nearly $11 billion plan to ramp up its core mining and thermal generation capacities by 2030.
Kumar said a subsidiary, NLC India Green Energy Ltd has been formed as the vehicle for all future renewable energy investments. Another subsidiary, NLC India Renewables Ltd is being put in place for monetising the existing solar/wind portfolio of 1.4GW worth an estimated Rs 8,000 crore.
“Monetising through a subsidiary will make the process eligible for tax benefits prescribed for green energy, which will not be the case if NCL were to sell it directly. We expect the government clearance soon,” he said.
“NCL was among the first movers in solar and the first Central PSU to set up a GW-scale renewable project. In that spirit, Central engineering consultancy WAPCOS has been engaged to study the feasibility of re-purposing empty lignite mines in Nyeveli to set up pumped-storage hydel power projects, estimated to have a potential of 200 MW, Kumar said.
For a balanced growth, NCL, fhe said, also ramp up its thermal power capacity from present 4GW to 11 GW by 2030, marking a 175% jump, with an investment of almost $6 billion. Some $1.4 billion will also be spent on doubling lignite/coal mining capacity to over 100 million tonne.
About 2GW of renewable projects are at various stages of implementation and will come on stream in the next one-and-a-half years, Kumar said. The first 660 MW unit of the company’s showpiece 1980 MW Ghatampur power project in UP is set to go live by June/July. While the Talabira twin mines are in production, work on the linked pithead power plant based on super-efficient ultra-super critical technology is progressing.
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