Chennai, March 12 (BPNS)

Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) is for installing solar power plants of 20,000 Mw capacity at a likely cost of Rs 70,000 crore. A senior official of the Tangedco told IANS that this step is to reduce the volume of power purchased from private companies, to increase the renewable energy resources, and to reduce the carbon footprint. It is to be noted that the cost of installing 1 MW of Solar power will be around Rs 3.5 crores.

Tangedco is likely to finalise the tender by March 20, the official told BPNS and the work will commence in April 2022. The place of installing the solar power plant will be finalized following the recommendation of the consultant of the project based on the climatic conditions. Tangedco officials said that for installing 1 MW of power 5 acres of land is required and for the 20000 MW power plant, it will be around 1,00,000 acres of land. The Chief Minister’s office, according to Tangedco has already directed the district collectors to identify land parcels.

Tamil Nadu power department is expecting to complete the construction of a 1000 MW power plant by the end of the year. Tangedco has put a deadline of 2030 to complete the 20,000 MW project and is expected to reduce the carbon footprint in a big manner following this.

In Tamil Nadu, according to Tangedco officials, the total installed power capacity is 37,500 MW and of this 15,250 MW is through renewable sources of energy.

Tangedco has at present small solar power plants that are installed at rooftops and are purchasing power from private producers at Rs 7.01 per unit. Another major necessity that will come up for Tangedco is the storage batteries and at present, the corporation has only batteries to store power up to 1 MW.

The corporation will have to procure batteries to store 20,000 MW of power that will be generated once all the solar plants are commissioned by 2030, an official of Tangedco said.