Discussion on to start 1,000-MW plant, which will be commissioned in phases The Adani Group has signed a power purchase agreement with the Tamil Nadu government to set up a 200-MW solar power plant in Ramanathapuram at an investment of nearly Rs.1,400 crore, according to TANGEDCO officials. The group is also in discussion with the State government to set up a 1,000-MW solar plant in the State. “The agreement to set up about 200 MW plant was signed a couple of days back and the investment in the project will be about Rs. 6.5 crore–Rs. 7 crore per MW,” the official said. The company is likely to stagger the investment and commission the 1,000 MW plant in phases. Officials at Adani Group were not available for comment. The investment comes at a time when Tamil Nadu’s ambitious plans to commission about 3,000 MW of solar energy by 2015 has not fructified with the State’s total grid connected solar power achieving a mere 5 per cent of its goal in the past three years. The State government in 2012 unveiled a ‘Solar Energy Policy’ that envisaged generation of 1,000 MW every year for three years through ‘utility scale projects’, rooftops and Renewable Energy Certificates (REC) schemes. However, TANGEDCO has recently signed Power Purchase Agreements for 631 MW, which will have to be commissioned by March 2016, the official said. “A load flow study has also found it feasible to commission another 2,200 MW,” the official said. “We are quite optimistic” As per data released by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Tamil Nadu ranks seventh in terms of total commissioned solar capacity till May this year, contributing just about 3.8 percent of the total capacity of 3.88 GW. Rajasthan and Gujarat lead the pack with commissioned capacity of 2 GW, about 65 percent of the total capacity. While Rajasthan has commissioned 1.04 GW, Gujarat contributed 1 GW. “In April and May this year, Rajasthan alone added 200 MW out of the 250 MW that came into the grid,” an official at the National Solar Mission (NSM) told The Hindu . High solar radiation “Rajasthan has a natural advantage of the highest amount of solar radiation for generation of solar power. It also has a lot of arid land, land cost there is relatively cheap and the government has also created land banks. Many of the bidders for projects under the MNRE scheme opt to bid for Rajasthan,” according to Madhavan Nampoothiri, Founder & Director, RESolve Energy Consultants. Tamil Nadu ranks seventh in terms of total commissioned solar capacity till May this year