By Business India Editorial

As part of Tamil Nadu government’s initiatives to meet its growing energy demand, Energy Minister V Senthilbalaji has said that his ministry is proposing a solar power park in every district of the state.

The minister also told the state assembly that the government plans to set up 4,000 MW solar power generating units apart from the 2,000 units of solar parks with battery storage capacity. He said the projects are part of the government’s vision of adding 20,000 MW of solar power capacity with storage facility in the next 10 years.

Tamil Nadu Energy Development Authority (TEDA) has floated a subsidiary company, Tamil Nadu Renewable Energy Park Ltd. (TREP) to carry out renewable energy projects, and cater to captive consumers through joint ventures.

“Energy generated through the wind-solar hybrid plant would be backed up in the batteries and will be used by the Metro during evening peak hours. Though the battery-backed solar plants are used in small scale, this will be the first-of-its-kind in the megawatt scale project in the state,” a TEDA official said.

Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd. (IREDA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Tamil Nadu Generation & Distribution Corporation Limited (TANGEDCO), for providing its technical expertise in developing Renewable Energy projects and fund raising. IREDA will extend technical expertise to TANGEDCO for Renewable Energy project development, bid process management, and implementation support.

IREDA will also assist TANGEDCO in debt raising through developing financial models, assistance in the understanding market instrument, underwriting services for the proposed debt requirement, and conducting pre-market surveys, road shows to generate interest amongst prospective investors.

The estimated loan required for the projects is about Rs1,32,500 core. IREDA, as the largest lender of the Renewable Energy sector, is committed to play an important role in the fulfilment of the financial requirements for RE projects. 

ReNew in full power

In Rajasthan, ReNew Power announced the commissioning of a 250 MW solar plant. The company will supply electricity from the plant to Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) at Rs2.55/unit, which will subsequently sell the power to Bihar.

The project is part of the 300 MW capacity won by ReNew Power in the competitive auction conducted by SECI in February 2019. The balance capacity is expected to be commissioned by the end of this month.

“This is the first project to be commissioned after ReNew started trading on NASDAQ (RNW) and is another step towards ReNew achieving close to 18 GW of installed renewable energy capacity by 2025,” said Sumant Sinha, CEO of the company.

In August, ReNew Power became the first Indian renewable energy company to publicly listed in the United States through a special purpose acquisition company and has received around $610 million in cash from the IPO. The company had earlier informed analysts that it aims to raise annual revenue to more than $1,950 million from the current level of $699 million.