The Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) will create 3,200 MW of distributed solar capacity in the next two years, a senior State government official has said.
Maharashtra has 130 MW of functional scale solar projects and 320 MW of projects in the pipeline.
The decision to scale up solar power capacity was taken by Power Minister Chandrakant Bawankule at a review meeting on Wednesday. The MSEDCL has 16 zones and each zone has been tasked with installing 200 MW of solar power projects, the official said. The power will be generated in a distributed manner by installing solar panels on grampanchayat and State government buildings.
The project willl be implemented under the State Energy Conservation Policy for which initial capital of Rs. 500 crore will be raised and presented before the State Cabinet for approval, the official said.
Large solar park-based project will be implemented by Maharashtra State Power Generation Company (Mahagenco) while distributed projects will be under MSEDCL.
The Maharashtra government has been very active on the solar power front and in last June, tenders of 750 MW of grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) projects to cater to the agricultural feeder loads of various substations across the State were floated. A 1,000 MW floating solar power plant on Ujani Dam in Solapur is also under consideration by MSEDCL, the official added.

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