The move is motivated by the objective of the state to increase its renewable power, reduce purchase from private companies and cut short Tamil Nadu’s carbon footprint
The Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) plans to spend about Rs 70,000 crore across Tamil Nadu to install 20,000 megawatt (MW) capacity of solar power plants by 2030.
A solar plant with a capacity of 1,000MW will be built by the end of 2022. The rest of the solar plants will come up in the next eight years.
The discom has gone with an estimate of Rs 3.5 crore per MW towards setting up these solar power plants. Besides that, it hopes to be able to identify the approx. 100,000 acres of land it will need for these planned new capacity. The DISCOM has come out with a tender inviting consultants for the project.
The move is motivated by the objective of the state to increase its renewable power, reduce purchase from private companies and cut short Tamil Nadu’s carbon footprint.
Officials hold that Tamil Nadu has a present installed power capacity of 37,715 MW. But only 15,250 MW is derived through renewable sources.
It has been reported that the consultant is expected to be in place by March 20 and the company selected will start the work by the beginning of April 2022. The key job of the consultant will be to analyse climate of Tamil Nadu, availability of raw materials and cost. Based on these analysis, it will recommend ideal spots in the state for installing solar power plants.
Tangedco owns only small plants installed on rooftops and is procuring solar power at a cost of Rs 7.01 a unit, too high by present standards.
On problems of storage, officials said the corporation has only tiny batteries to store power. “Each of these batteries can store only less than 1 MW power. When mega solar power plants are established, Tangedco will need batteries to store up to 10,000 MW of power,” he added.
