OREANDA-NEWS. July 20, 2011. Close on the heels of emerging as the first company to have installed and commissioned a megawatt-scale solar power plant under the Rooftop and Other Small Solar Power Generation Plant scheme administered by IREDA under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM), Tata BP Solar is implementing a 5MW engineering, procurement and construction project for Electrical Manufacturing Company, Kolkata, to be operational by December 2011, under the NTPC – NVVN scheme of JNNSM.

This project at Naini, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, uses 24,530 crystalline silicon modules spread out over an area of 25 acres. These modules will generate electric current when solar radiation falls on them. This direct current (DC) electricity will be converted to alternating current (AC) through inverters and upgraded to 33KV via transformers so that it is fed into the electricity grid lines of nominated discoms under Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation at 33KV. Tata BP Solar has also taken the contract to provide operation and maintenance services to the plant for the first 10 years after commissioning. The plant is designed to run for 25 years and the crystalline silicon modules manufactured and supplied by Tata BP Solar are guaranteed to perform for this period of 25 years with minimal degradation in the power output over the long lifetime.

Tata BP Solar, a joint venture of Tata Power and BP Solar, is the pioneer and market leader in India. Tata BP Solar is currently executing more than 15 major projects in different parts of India including Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chattisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Rajasthan.

The JNNSM is a flagship project of the Indian Government to mainstream the use of solar energy and has galvanised the industry by setting out an ambitious target of installing 20,000MW of grid-connected solar power generation capacity by 2022 in addition to 2,000MW of off-grid solar power. Out of this, 1,100MW grid-connected solar power capacity is to be installed in the first phase ending in March 2013. Nearly 800MW of this has already been allocated.