Raasi Green plans to set up Rs 920-cr solar farm in TN

Raasi Green Energy Private Ltd has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Tamil Nadu government to set up a solar farm in the state with an investment of around Rs 920 crore.

The company exchanged the MoU with the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (Tidco) in the presence of chief minister J Jayalalithaa at Chennai on Friday.

The proposed plant, spread over in 500 acre, would come up at Paramakudi in Ramanathapuram district. The farm will have a capacity of 100 Megawatt (Mw) and would be commissioned over the next 12 months. It is expected to create 2,000 jobs.

Jayalalithaa said the state government would give full co-operation to the company, which was planning to expand to 1,000 Mw.

According to Tamil Nadu’s Vision 2023 Document, over the next 11 years, the state will have solar-based power plants with a total generating capacity of 5,000 Megawatt. The recently announced Solar Power Policy has also stated that before 2015 the state will have solar power plants with a generating capacity of 3,000 Mw.

As part of the target, Tidco will implement projects with a generating capacity of 1000 Mw through public private partnership (PPP) in the next five years. Raasi Green’s project is the fist as part of Tidco’s target.

The Tamil Nadu government also recently assured solar power producers it would give letter of credit (LoC) and the payment would not be defaulted. State Electricity Board owes a little over Rs 1,000 crore to the wind energy sector.