Azure Power has announced the signing of a MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Limited (NVVN), to become the first operating private project under Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission.
Azure intends to be the first company to sign PPA (Power Purchase Agreement) and collect tariff under the new policy. Azure Power’s 2MW solar power plant at Awan, Punjab has been awarded migration to the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission’s grid connected project scheme.
The MoU was signed in the presence of Dr. Farooq Abdullah, Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy and Shri Sushilkumar Shinde, Union Minister for Power. The NSM had received applications from more than 60 companies out of which 16 were selected for signing the MOU’s. Out of the 16, Azure is the only private company that has achieved financial closure and has partly commissioned the solar PV plant.
Speaking on this occasion Mr. Inderpreet Wadhwa, CEO, Azure Power said “Being the first private company to produce a grid connected solar power plant in the country, it is only natural that Azure Power be the first company to provide solar power to NTPC. It is a reflection of our leadership in solar power generation and our ambition to be a major player in solar power sector in the country.”
Azure Power operationalised India’s first private MW scale solar power plant in Punjab, in December 2009. They have signed MoU’s with the governments of Gujarat, Punjab, Karnataka and Haryana for the development of grid connected solar power plants and are in talks with the governments of Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and West Bengal for agreements regarding solar power plants in these states.