Kathmandu, March 17 -- Energy mix of Nepal, which till date is dominated by hydropower, is expected to be more diverse in coming years with more private developers showing interest in installing solar plants in different locations.

In this fiscal year alone, the Department of Electricity Development (DoED) has awarded survey licences to various developers willing to install solar plants at 21 different locations within the country. The combined installed capacity of these solar plants will be 317.14MW which will account for almost 70 percent of the total installed capacity of 56 solar plants that have received survey licence from the department till date.

The largest among them is 120MW Solar PV Project Dhalkebar in Mahottari district o...