Tata group likely to set up Tamil Nadu solar cell plant, invest Rs 3,000 cr

State seeks to have 25 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030, become investment destination in sector.

The Tata group’s solar arm plans to set up a 4GW integrated solar photovoltaic cell manufacturing unit in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu for Rs 3,000 crore, helping the state’s plans to bump up its solar power capacity in ten years.

The Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) targets around 25 GW of renewable capacity by 2030: that includes 20 GW solar project with adequate battery storage, 3 GW of pumped storage hydroelectric project, and 2 GW of gas-based power units. The state looks to arrange loans to the tune of around Rs 1.32 trillion for these projects.

The Tata group’s unit will help Tamil Nadu to present itself as an attractive investment destination for alternate energy. India has set an ambitious renewable energy target of 175 GW by 2022 – including 100 GW of solar, 60 GW of wind, 10 GW of biomass and 5 GW of small hydro projects – and expects to touch 450 GW by 2030. In the last seven years, the country’s solar capacity has increased from 2.6 GW to 42 GW now. As of March 2021, Tamil Nadu has a total installed solar capacity of 4.4 GW.

A report by think tank CSTEP said the southern states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and ‘united Andhra Pradesh’ (Andhra Pradesh and Telangana) have the potential to generate of around 1,526 GW of solar power and 1,124 GW of wind energy. Tamil Nadu has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) to avail their technical expertise and for fund raising.

Early this year, the government of India had lined up the production-linked incentive scheme for solar photovoltaic panels manufacturing. The scheme was targeting a 10 GW capacity for solar PV modules with an outlay of Rs 4,500 crore and targeting an investment of around Rs 17,200 crore.

Reliance Industries has lined up plans to come up with four giga factories in Jamnagar for integrated solar PV modules, an electrolyser unit and a fuel cell factory at an investment of around Rs 60,000 crore. Adani Solar clocks 3.5 GW of annual solar photovoltaic production. In Tamil Nadu, companies like Vikram Solar and US-based First Solar are already into the sector. Vikram Solar has set up a 1.2GW capacity in Oragadam. First Solar is planning to invest $684 million for its 3.3 GW project in Pillaipakkam.

Tata Power Solar operates a manufacturing unit in Bangalore, with a production capacity of 580MW of modules and 530 MW of cells. It has a portfolio of more than 7GW of ground-mount utility-scale, and over 615MW of rooftop and distributed generation projects across the country till date.