Adani Group signs MoU with Tamil Nadu for Rs 4,536 crore solar park

Under a new policy, the state plans to buy 2000 MW by end of 2015 from private players

The Adani group on Saturday signed a memorandum of understanding with the Tamil Nadu government for setting up solar power plants at a cost of Rs 4,536 crore in Ramanathapuram district. This gives a fillip to the company’s plan to add 10,000-Mw solar power generation capacity by 2022 across the country.

The government stated that the group would set up five solar power units with a total capacity of 648-Mw.

Sources said the construction process is expected to begin this month and the project would be operational by next February or March.

Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Ltd (Tangedco) would purchase the entire power from the project at Rs 7.01 a unit for the next 25 years.

Adani has approached the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion for clearance through three different companies, including Ramnad Renewable Energy, Kamuthi Solar Power Ltd and Ramnad Solar Power Ltd.

While around 70 per cent of the investment in the project would be met through internal accruals, the balance would be funded by institutional investors and through debt.

Besides Tamil Nadu, the group is setting up solar plants in Rajasthan (5,000 Mw), Jharkhand (10,000 Mw) and Gujarat (5,000 Mw). It has an operational plant at Bitta in Gujarat with a capacity of 40 Mw.

In 2012, the Tamil Nadu government had launched the solar energy policy, which called for the development of 1,000 Mw of utility-scale, rooftop and renewable energy certificate (REC) projects annually through 2015. Natham R Viswanathan, minister of electricity, said his government plans to buy about 1,000 Mw every year.

"This was delayed due to some court issues, which are cleared now and we will go ahead with our plan," said the minister. To attract investments in solar power, the state government had sought the renewable energy ministry a hike in capital subsidy for off-grid and grid solar PV system from 100 Kw to 500 Kw. The government also said it has signed agreements with 31 solar firms to produce 436 Mw of power and the latest MoU will increase this to 1,084 Mw. All these MoUs will translate to Rs 7,588-crore investment in Tamil Nadu, it added.

In order to facilitate evacuation of the power expected to be generated in the facilities in the region, the government has decided to lay a 400 Kw transmission line between Kamuthi and Ramanathapuram at a cost of Rs 435 crore, to transmit the power from Ramanathapuram and Virudunagar district.

According to the government, 107 companies have also shown interest to set up power units with a combined capacity of 2,722 Mw. Of these, 53 companies, with a combined capacity of 1,132 Mw have done a pre-feasibility report.