In a move that highlights the growing importance of solar power, Aditya Aluminium, which is a unit of the Aditya Birla Group, has set up a 24 MW solar power project at Lapanga in Sambalpur district.
This comes as a part of Odisha government’s ambition of installing renewable energy capacity of 2,750 MW, out of which 2,200 MW will be from solar energy.
The project was inaugurated by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and is spread across 144 acres of land with an investment of Rs. 1.51 billion. The power produced will be used by Aditya Aluminium in the aluminium smelting process.
Speaking about the downside of solar power, the unit head of Aditya Aluminium, Kailash Pandey said, “Smelters require a consistent load network and uninterrupted power supply. For Aditya Aluminium, this load requirement sums up to nearly 658 MW which is huge. However, power fluctuations are very common in solar projects as power generation depends on daylight. Cloudy weather, rains may also cause huge power swings.”
“Controlling turbo generators during the power swing is an upheaval task in terms of boiler stability, electricity import and export as we are connected to the grid,” he added.
