Renewable energy projects in AP: Chandrababu Naidu seeks Centre's support

New Delhi: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Friday sought Centre's support to make his state a 'model state' in renewable energy projects including solar and wind hybrid projects.

Naidu met Coal, Power and New & Renewable Energy Minister Piyush Goyal here and discussed various issues related to development of power and renewable energy sector in Andhra Pradesh.

"We have discussed issues related to development of power sector in the state," Goyal said after around a two-hour long meeting with the chief minister.

A senior state official said that the Andhra Pradesh government also wants to capitalise on the big opportunity of developing power sector in the state, particularly renewable energy sector.

He said that the state has conducive conditions like required sunlight for solar power and speedy wind to run mills for generating electricity.

Under the National Solar Mission, India has increased its targeted solar power generation capacity by five fold to 100GW by 2022.

At present, the solar power generation capacity is around 4,000MW. Thus, there is a huge potential to develop solar plants in the country.

Last month, Japan's telecommunications and Internet giant SoftBank Corp expressed interest in collaborating with the state government in the renewable energy sector.

SoftBank Chairman & CEO Masayoshi Son met Naidu and said that the company will work to make AP a 'model state' in solar and wind hybrid projects in the country.

During the meeting, Naidu sought SoftBank's collaboration in renewable energy to make the future sustainable.

SoftBank has formed a joint venture with India's Bharti Enterprises to make investments in renewable energy sector in India. The JV will invest USD 20 billion in solar and wind energy projects over the next 10 years.