Tata Power Company to invest nearly Rs 70,000 crore in Tamil Nadu
In what may well be the largest single investment by Tata Power Company in any state, the power major is all set to invest around Rs 70,000 crore to come up with a 10 gigawatt (GW) solar and wind units in Tamil Nadu over a period of five to seven years.
A formal announcement of 10 GW generation is likely to happen on Monday, when a memorandum of understanding will be signed between the state government and Tata Power. This is in addition to a new greenfield 4.3 GW solar cell and module manufacturing facility that the company is coming up at Tirunelveli.
“As part of GIM, we are looking at investing Rs 70,000 crore. This will happen over a period of time of five to seven years. We are going to set up a 10 GW solar and wind project in Tamil Nadu,” said Praveer Sinha, chief executive officer and managing director of Tata Power Company. He added that the project will be equally divided for solar and wind power.
“Tamil Nadu has very good solar and wind resources. We are also setting up a large solar cell and module manufacturing facility located at Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu. This will see an investment of Rs 4,000. Regarding 10 GW investment, we have not made any such investment in any state,” Sinha added. Tata Power Renewable Energy (TPREL), a subsidiary of The Tata Power Company, will set up a 41 MW captive solar plant at Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu for TP Solar Limited (TP Solar)’s new greenfield 4.3 GW solar cell and module manufacturing facility located at Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu.
The captive plant will help generate 101 million units of electricity and offset around 72,000 metric tonnes of CO2 emissions annually. The captive solar project will be commissioned 12 months from the signing of the Project Development Agreement (PDA). TPREL has established TP Govardhan Creatives, a specialized entity entrusted with the development, operation, and upkeep of this facility for TP Solar.
TP Solar’s manufacturing plant is expected to start commercial production of cells and modules by FY25. With this new captive solar plant, TPREL’s total capacity will expand to 7,877 MW including 3,720 MW of projects at different stages of implementation, and an operational capacity of 4,157 MW, comprising 3,154 MW solar energy and 1,003 MW wind energy.
The company is looking to double its profit and revenue in the next three years with the major focus on renewable energy. By FY27, it has set a capital expenditure of Rs 60,000 crore. Sinha said Tamil Nadu investments will include some parts of this capex plan.
When asked about the charging infrastructure that the company has, he said, “We have nearly 70,000 home chargers and nearly 5,000 public chargers, which are in different parts of the country. Apart from that we also have chargers with fleet owners. We are targeting to cover 25,000 chargers in the next five years.”
First Published: Jan 07 2024 | 6:24 PM IST