Raasi Green Energy to set up Rs 920 crore solar farm in Tamil Nadu

State to give total co-operation, the company is planning to expant to 1,000 MW

Raasi Green Energy Private Ltd today signed a MoU with the Tamil Nadu Government to set up a solar farm in the state of Tamil Nadu with an investment of around Rs 920 crore. The new plant will come in the southern district of Ramanathapuram district.

The company exchanged a MoU with Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO) in front of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa at Chennai today.

Speaking at the occasion, the Chief Minister said that the state government will give total co-operation and stated that the company is planning to expand to 1000 MW and hope this project will be launching platform for many more such solar power projects in the state.

The new plant will come at Paramakudi in Ramanathapuram district and will spread over in 500 acre of land. The total investment in the plant will be Rs 920 crore. The farm will have a capacity of 100 mega watt (Mw) and it will commission over the next 12 months and will create 2000 jobs.

It may be noted, according to Tamil Nadu Government's Vision 2023 Document, over the next 11 years the state will have solar based power plants which will have total generating capacity of 5000 mega watt. The recently announced Solar Power Policy has also stated that before 2015 the state will have solar power plants with a generating capacity of 3000 MW.

As part of the target in the next five years TIDCO will implement projects which will have generating capacity of 1000 MW through public private partnership (PPP) and this will be the first project as part of TIDCO's target.

It may be noted, recently Tamil Nadu Government today assured the Solar Power producers that it will give letter of credit (LOC) and the payment will not be defaulted. The assurance comes at a time the State Electricity Board owes little over Rs 1000 crore to the wind energy sector. The assurance comes in the back drop of Tamil Nadu's plan to add around 3000 MW of solar power in three years.

While addressing the prospective bidders consultation meeting for 1000 MW sate distributio in company Tangedco's Managing Director K Gnanadesikan said that the main part of the project is that the payment is assured and there will be a payment support mechanism by way of letter of credit and the bid will be on the basis of rate contract.