OREANDA-NEWS. August 30, 2011.  Bengaluru: Tata BP Solar, a joint venture of Tata Power and BP Solar, added yet another megawatt scale solar power plant to the list of those installed and commissioned under the Rooftop and Other Small Solar Power Generation Plant scheme administered by IREDA under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM). This landmark project is owned and developed by M/s SN Mohanty at Patapur village, PO – Kundee Padaa, Cuttack district, in Orissa. The one megawatt plant was synchronised to the grid on August 23, 2011, well ahead of the schedule stipulated by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

Commenting on this momentous occasion, K Subramanya, CEO, Tata BP Solar, said, “Tata BP Solar as an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor in association with M/s SN Mohanty is very proud in bringing about this first solar photovoltaic MW plant in Orissa.”

This project uses 4,400 crystalline silicon modules of 230 watts each spread out over an area of five acres. These modules will generate electric current when solar radiation falls on them. This direct current electricity will be converted to alternating current through inverters and upgraded to 11kV via transformers so that it is fed into the electricity grid lines of Orissa State Electricity Board at 11kV. The solar power plant will generate 1.41 million units of electricity first year. 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 life time. M/s SN Mohanty has signed a power purchase agreement with the Orissa State Electricity Board for 25 years to supply this power to them.

Tata BP Solar has been able to secure a number of EPC contracts in the IREDA-run scheme and is currently executing projects in different parts of India including Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chattisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand.

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, 1,100-MW 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 and is currently under execution.