TN to Invest 5,000 Crore in Renewable Energy

A dedicated central public sector undertaking for solar power, SECI, is working elsewhere on the theme of floating solar projects as well. SECI, at the beginning of this year, issued tenders for a 150 MW plant for Rihand Dam in Uttar Pradesh.

To set the voyage for the total transformation of the state’s transmission infrastructure and push for the use of renewable energy, Tamil Nadu government is set to pump in Rs 5000 crore in the sector. Commissioning of floating solar plant and modify targets in renewable energy policies would be the part of the new strategy of the state government.

Announcing the projects in the state Assembly, chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami said there would be a new energy policy, too. “To mitigate the effect of evaporation (from dams) and step up solar procurement in the state, the power utility (Tamil Nadu Generation & Distribution Company) and the Solar Energy Corporation of India will combine, in a first, to execute a 250 MW, Rs 1,125-crore floating solar plant,” Palaniswami said.

A dedicated central public sector undertaking for solar power, SECI, is working elsewhere on the theme of floating solar projects as well. SECI, at the beginning of this year, issued tenders for a 150 MW plant for Rihand Dam in Uttar Pradesh.

“SECI has done the feasibility studies; the Vaigai dam and Veeranam tank were the two probable locations,” the official said. The government did not specify when the project will be commissioned.

Besides announcing 25 substations across six districts in Tamil Nadu, the chief minister said there will soon be a new energy policy to meet the targets set by former chief minister J Jayalalithaa in a document she launched in 2012, which envisaged the state’s solar power capacity at 8,884 MW by 2023.

In a solar policy note, it launched in 2012, Tamil Nadu targeted a capacity of 3,000 MW from the renewable energy form by 2015.

In its policy note for the year 2018-19, the energy department said the solar capacity had touched 2,034 by March 2018. The chief minister, in his speech on Tuesday, submitted that the Solar Policy 2012 would be “suitably amended” to meet the targets set in the Vision 2023 document released by Jayalalithaa.

Source: ET