MSPL mulls solar power foray

Concrete steps to be taken in two-three years

MUMBAI: Karnataka-based private mining company MSPL Ltd, which diversified into wind energy in 2001, is now planning a foray into solar power generation.

Shrenik Baldota, executive director of MSPL Ltd, said the company was keenly looking at solar energy as a next step to diversify into alternate power generation option, but the plans would take sometime to materialise.

“We have plans to enter the solar energy sector though it is not a very viable option currently. In fact, the cost factor is something that has made us go slow.” He said MSPL Ltd was assessing the dynamics of a possible foray and a concrete step would be taken in the next two to three years.

The company plans to enter the solar energy sector as a large scale producer. “For smaller projects such as individual houses and shopping centres, solar energy makes sense, but if we want to supply power to an entire township, the costs are high and would take sometime for the input cost to come down,” he said.

MSPL Ltd currently has an installed generation capacity of 200 MW of power through its seven wind farms located in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat. “It is a rapidly growing sector and we have the largest installed wind power generation capacity in the country currently,” he said. This year, the company plans to augment its capacity by another 30 to 40 MW and take the capacity to 500 MW by 2010. MSPL Ltd has lined up an investment of close to Rs 1,500 crore for implementing the target.

This amount would be invested in an additional five wind farms, there by taking the total tally to 12 wind farms by the end of 2010, said Baldota. He said the company was also looking at some Special Economic Zones (SEZs) for its alternative energy plans.

However, all expansions would be concentrated in the three states where it already had some capacity.

It sells power to the state grid operators in these three states at a price of Rs 3.2 to Rs 3.4 per unit, depending on the tariff structures.

Baldota said the company was also one of the pioneers in earning carbon credits in wind energy by registering one of its wind farms under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). “Our CDM 1 project of 125 MW in Karnataka has been registered with United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and four other such projects are underway,” he said. MSPL Ltd’s wind energy operation currently generates 1.5 mn tonnes of carbon credit per year, which would fetch it approximately Rs50 cr as revenues by encashing the credits earned.