State-owned National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) plans to diversify into nuclear and renewable energy as part of its strategy to ‘go green’. The company has a capacity of 30,000 megawatt (mw), a fifth of India’s total installed capacity of 150,000 mw.
A K Singhal, director — finance, NTPC said the move to diversify has become imperative in the light of increasing environmental consciousness across the world.
“Currently, around 88% of our capacity is coal-based and 18% is based on natural gas. We want to include hydro, nuclear and renewable sources gradually,” he said. The company has already secured shareholder approval for the move, he added.
NTPC will also increase its total power generation capacity to 75,000 mw by 2017, Singhal said in an analyst conference in Mumbai on Monday. Coal-based capacity will go up from the current 25,000 mw to 40,000 mw by 2012 and to 53,000 mw by 2017, while gas capacity will increase from the current 5,400 mw to 8,000 mw by 2012 and 10,000 mw in 2017.
It will simultaneously work on its alternative fuel strategy, with hydropower being the first to kick off. NTPC will have around 2,000 mw of hydro capacity by 2012, and 9,000 mw by 2017. In addition, around 2,000 mw will come from nuclear power and 1,000 mw from renewable sources like solar and wind.
Singhal said the company is considering setting up three mini hydel projects at different locations in the country. It is also looking at putting up solar plants totalling 41 mw.
A proposal to set up a 1,010 mw wind energy installation straddling Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat is also under “active consideration,” said Singhal. Meanwhile, NTPC has signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Geophysical Research Institute of Hyderabad for development of a geothermal energy project.
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