Singareni Collieries Business building 300 MW of solar power plants over 3 years
SCCL will become the first state-run coal miner generating solar power for captive use
On 7 March 2020, State-owned Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) plans to install 300 Megawatt (MW) solar power plants over a 2-3 year cycle to reduce their carbon footprints.
The other state-owned miner Coal India Ltd (CIL), which alone accounts for 80 % of the country's domestic coal output, is also focused on reducing carbon footprint by improving technologies in mining, exploring the renewable energy source and installing LEDs and solar lights.
According to S Vijaysagar, Senior Manager, Public Relations at Coal India Coal India Limited has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with NLC India Limited to create a joint venture firm for 3,000 MW solar power generation to become a Net Zero Firm. It has also signed a MoU with Indian Solar Energy Corporation to produce 1000 MW of electricity.
He added that the firm has installed 2.74 MW roof top solar at Eastern Coalfields Limited, Western Coalfields Limited, Central Coalfields Limited, Central Mine Planning and Design Institute, CIL (Headquarters), and a 2 MW ground-mounted solar at Mahanadi Coalfields Limited.
According to Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi, Furthermore, SCCL also intended to build 300 MW of solar power plants in the next 2-3 years in order to minimize carbon footprints, the business plans to build nine captive solar power plants with a gross capital outlay of USD 189.03 million.
Last financial year, SCCL generated 64.40 million tons of coal and its net revenue was USD 2.87 million. The developer owns a 1,200 MW thermal power station and has chalked out a plan to add solar power. It announced in January 2020, that a 5 MW solar power project situated in Telangana will be synchronized.
Once operationalized, the solar plants will make SCCL the first coal firm with government ownership to produce solar power for captive usage. Today the company operates 48 mines. Of these, 19 opencast mines and 29 subway mines are found in 6 Telangana districts. The business contributes 9.4% of total domestic coal production in India.
Joshi said the government has taken a balanced approach to reducing carbon emissions, including a decrease in the share of fossil-fuel-based energy production, and promoting non-fossil-fuel-based sources of energy. Joshi added, the government is committed to achieving by 2030 with the assistance of technology transfer and low cost international finance, including from the Green Environment Fund, around 40% installed power generation capacity from non-fossil fuel based energy resources.
In fact, the coal ministry has set a target of producing an additional carbon sink equivalent of 2.5 to 3 billion tons of CO2 by 2030 by increased woodland and tree cover.
