Factbox: India coal plants seeking U.N. carbon offsets

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - India's burgeoning economy is struggling to meet rapid growth in electricity demand, with the nation of 1.2 billion people plagued by blackouts and aging infrastructure.

The government has backed investment in thermal coal power plants, particularly more efficient supercritical plants that emit less planet-warming carbon dioxide and consume less coal.

The government said in April India would add 61,000 megawatts of power generation capacity in the five-year period ending March 2012, down from an earlier target of 78,000 MW.

Most of this would come from coal-fired power plants.

Here are supercritical coal projects planned or under construction that are hoping to earn carbon offset revenues from a U.N.-backed scheme that rewards investments that cut greenhouse gas emissions. Green groups say big coal plants should not be eligible for valuable carbon offsets.

Most of the Indian projects are at validation, meaning they are being vetted by U.N.-approved auditors before formal U.N. registration and could be rejected if they fail to prove carbon revenues are crucial to the plant's financial viability.

DEVELOPER

1. Adani Power is developing a 4,620 MW complex at Mundra, Gujarat, in four phases. In December 2009, the UN approved the 1,320 MW phase 3 as the first, and still the only, supercritical coal to formally registered to earn valuable carbon offsets. The offsets, called certified emissions reductions, or CERs, will be allocated annually over a decade.

Adani is also hoping for carbon revenues from the 1,980 MW phase four of the Mundra plant. In Tirora in the western state of Maharashtra, Adani is also developing a large supercritical project in phases and is seeking carbon revenues for 1,320 MW phase 1 and the combined 1,980 MW phases 2 and 3.

2. Tata Power is developing a 4,000 MW plant in Gujarat but the U.N. rejected in late July its application for carbon revenues that would have been worth about 31 million euros a year based on current prices for (CERs).

3. Reliance Power is developing three supercritical projects in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand. Each will have a capacity of 3,960 MW.

4. CLP Power India. CLP's Jhajjar power plant in Haryana will have a capacity of 1,320 MW.

5. Indiabulls Power Limited is developing a 1,320 MW plant at Nandgaonpeth, Amravati district, Maharashtra.

6. GMR Energy -- developing a 1,370 MW plant in Chhattisgarh

-- Total capacity planned: 26,490 MW

-- Total number annual CERs expected

to be issued (excluding Tata's project) 18.1 million

-- Total annual value based on current

price of 12 euros per CER 217.2 million euros

(More data can be found at: here )

(Source: Point Carbon, UNFCCC, UN Risoe Center)

(Reporting by David Fogarty; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)