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A consortium of automotive component manufacturers in Chennai is planning to set up around 50 MW of solar power in Tamil Nadu over the next two to three years. At today's rate to set up one mega watt of solar farm would cost around Rs 6 - 6.5 crore, going by which these firms are expected to invest around Rs 300 crore and the power produced from these plants will be used for captive purpose.
Earlier, the Tamil Nadu Government has imposed a minimum Solar Purchase Obligation on all commercial consumers — six% of their total power requirement should be met through solar.
Mahindra EPC Services Pvt. Ltd, the Solar EPC arm of $16.2 billion Mahindra Group, today announced that it has commissioned two solar plants for a consortium of automotive component manufacturers in Tamil Nadu in 40 days.
These include a 2.12 MW plant for M M Forgings Ltd. and a 1.06 MW plant for Super Auto Forge Pvt. Ltd., which are both located in Aruppukottai, near Madurai. In addition to these two companies, the consortium consists of I.M. Gears, the Rane Group and Autotech Industries (India) Pvt. Ltd.
Murali Shankar, joint managing director of Super Auto Forge Pvt. Ltd said more auto-components manufacturers have shown interest to join the consortium.
Seetharaman, chairman and managing director, Super Auto Forge said “individually we cannot buy the land in large scale”. The five consortium members are planning to procure around 390 acres of land, out of which around 200 acres already purchased.
Super Auto the company wants to the use of captive renewable energy across the facilities and the company along with other four partners, could come together and develop an innovative structure to make solar power an affordable reality, said Murali Shankar, Joint MD of Super Auto Forge Pvt. Ltd.
Shankar said the capacity is ready to generate 11,000 units for Super Auto and 22,000 units for M M Forgings every day. The developer noted, while the farms will be located at the same area, each company will have their own solar farm.
Initially the firms were looking at investing individually, but after realising the scale benefits that could be achieved through collocating clean energy assets and ultimately formed a consortium to invest in solar energy together.
S Sethuraman, executive vice president, corporate finance & business development, Rane Group said by having a consortium companies can save cost through shared evacuation and better negotiation with the EPC contractor.
Vidyashankar Krishnan, Vice Chairman & MD, M M Forgings Ltd said given this initial success, the group looks forward to further developing solar assets in Tamil Nadu in the coming years.
