Thanjavur Corporation Moves Closer to First Solar Plant

Completing a project first initiated in January last year, the Thanjavur Corporation will tap soon be able to tap solar power to generate 3 megawatts of electricity for its consumption from a solar power plant being set up on the outskirts of the town under the Smart City Project.

The ground mounted solar project has been set up on 10-acre of land near the civic body’s sewage treatment plant functioning at Sirajudheen Nagar near Samudhram Lake, on the outskirts of the town.

While the major portion of the electricity generation and distribution link works worth ₹15 crore and civic works worth ₹2 crore had been completed, the work of linking the power plant with the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited network is in the final stage, and is expected to be completed in February.

A second solar plant of 2.4 MW capacity has also been tendered out for the same location, back in December , 2021.

Projects under the Smart City Project have been progressing slowly, and this success story hopefully will encourage many more to move faster on their plans.

Municipal bodies across the country suffer from a perennial shortage of funding, and in the near future, should be looking at solar power and other options like earning carbon credits by better waste disposal and efficiency  to augment their finances.

A second key area of course is the need for these bodies to be actively involved with supporting the EV transition, both in terms of their own vehicle fleets and supporting the establishment of wider EV charging networks.

Incidentally, Surat Municipal Corporation was the first municipal body to use solar power for water treatment.