India's leading thermal power producer NTPC is looking to buy coal properties in Australia. The company said that it will send a team to Australia for exploring the possibilities of coal mine acquisition there.
"We had talked to the Australian government. Our team is going there in about 15 days to New South Wales and Queensland. These are the states we have zeroed in and they have good port connectivity, as well as black coal," NTPC Chairman and Managing Director RS Sharma told reporters in New Delhi.
"The Australian government has assured us they will facilitate our meetings with the companies there," he said.
RS Sharma recently visited the country. He said that the company is keen to pick up equity stake in coal blocks in that country. "We are more keen to pick up equity stake in the mines there (Australia), we want enough equity stake so that we can exercise some power."
NTPC is also working towards enhancing its renewable energy portfolio and would be investing close to Rs 8,000 crore in the next five years towards generation of electricity from non-conventional sources of energy like solar, wind etc.
"We would invest Rs 6,000-8,000 crore in renewable power generation...of which 30 per cent would be equity," Sharma added.
NTPC currently generates over 30,000 MW of power from all sources of energy and would enhance this capacity to 50,000 MW by the end of the current 11th Five-Year Plan Period.
