Chennai, Feb 3 (IANS): Tamil Nadu is the fourth sunniest state of the country and hence is the fourth in solar energy production in India. The state has a total installation of 6061.31 MW of Ground Mount Solar, 373.73 MW of Roof Top Solar and 62.28 MW of Off grid solar.
The state government in 2019 released a solar policy with a target of achieving 9000 MW of solar capacity by 2023. The chief objectives of the policy document are the availability of solar energy, accessibility and affordability for all consumers.
The Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) is planning to build solar capacity of 20,000 MW with an investment of Rs 70,000 crore. Tangedco has floated tenders for the first ever district level solar park in the state.
Tangedco also plans to extend solar parks in all the districts of the state and a land area of 6333 acres has been identified for the project. Tata Power has already shown interest in the state solar policy and has signed a policy agreement for setting up a solar power project in Tamil Nadu at a cost of Rs 3000 crores.
In Tamil Nadu, the major sectors are small and micro industries, big industry, residential and agricultural industry. While small and micro industry and big industry have power requirements of 200 kws, the residential and agriculture industries have a requirement of 30 kws only.
One of the world’s largest solar power projects is functioning in Kamuthi in Tamil Nadu which is a 648 MW solar power plant operated by the Adani group. This massive plant consists of 2.5 million solar modules, 3,80,000 foundations, 30,000 tonnes of structure, 576 inverters and 154 transformers.
The solar power plant was commissioned within a period of eight months and is connected to the 400 Kv substation and is powering 2,65,000 homes in the state.
The Nellai solar park located in Ettanakulam village in Manur Taluk in Tirunelveli district is another major solar power plant in Tamil Nadu which has a capacity of generating 124 GWh annually. The project was commissioned in May 2022 and is connected with the TANTRANSCO grid of the Tamil Nadu government.
In Tamil Nadu a subsidy of 30% is provided by the government on the total cost of installation of the On Grid Solar system which is up to a maximum of Rs 25000 per Kw.
The subsidy is provided jointly by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and the Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency (TEDA).
The Tamil Nadu solar policy envisaged in 2019 has encouraged the installation of solar panels in all buildings including corporations, municipalities and local urban bodies.
However industries in Coimbatore alleged that the networking charges collected for installing rooftop solar energy panels was discouraging investments in the solar sector.
Coimbatore District Small Industries Association president V. Thirugnanam while speaking to IANS said, “The number of MSME’s that have installed roof top solar panels are presently less. However when the government increases power costs on an annual basis, these small and medium industries will have to install the solar energy panels and to shift to renewable energy to be competitive.”
He added that the government of Tamil Nadu should encourage investments in solar energy and not discourage them with network charges.
The Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Company has been collecting Rs 1.53 per unit from low tension industrial consumers and there were huge protests from MSME industries. The government has now reduced the Tangedco collection by 50 percent.
Energy consultant A.D. Thirumorrthy while speaking to IANS said that the state has 6000 MW of installed solar energy and every year 1000 MW of energy is being added to it. He said that in this context, the state should not charge for networking into grids and added that several industries which had invested earlier in wind energy are now going for solar energy.
The huge delays in distributing subsidies to consumers has also hindered the progress of solar roof top panels in Tamil Nadu. IANS spoke to several solar energy consumers in the state and they said that they haven’t received subsidies for the past years.
K.R. Periyasamy, an MSME industrialist based out of Coimbatore, told IANS that “One of the main reasons for the reduced consumers is because several applications are pending at various unit offices for months due to shortage of net meters.”
He also said that the financial losses faced by Tangedco due to its subsidy scheme was another reason for the power body not releasing subsidies to solar consumers.
U.R. Rajan, who has installed a roof top panel, said ”Many officials who come for inspection are intimidating us consumers stating that if we could invest in a lavish house and make initial investments for solar panels, we should not go for subsidy.”
However a senior IAS officer with the Tamil Nadu electricity department, told IANS on conditions of anonymity that the Chief Minister has directed the officials for a more transparent approach and to provide subsidies at the earliest for the consumers and to increase the solar roof top panels in the state.