Tamil Nadu Government has floated tenders for generating solar energy to the tune of 1,500 MW as part of its proposal to increase the installed power capacity in solar energy to 5,000 MW in coming years.
According to the policy note tabled in the state assembly by Electricity Minister P Thangamani, Tamil Nadu had a total solar installed capacity of 1,702.40 MW as of May 31, 2017.
Tamil Nadu has harnessed around 1,644 million units of solar energy during 2016-17 and considerable quantum of solar generation is being realised during day time for around 800 MW to 1,200 MW, it said. On March 27, 2017 an all-time high generation of 1,498 MW and the all-time maximum energy of 9.40 million units were achieved from solar generation.
On generation of wind power, the policy note said, the installed capacity stood at 7,854.81 MW as on May 31, 2017. As the State was already having huge installed capacity of wind power, it was in the position to sell wind power to other States.
During the last wind season around 120MW of wind power has been scheduled daily to Odisha as sale of green power, it said. Efforts were being taken to schedule around 500 MW of green power daily to the needy States, it added.
By Baishakhi Dutta
