Wednesday, September 17, 2014: After failing for the past two years to get investment, the electricity regulator sets a price for solar-power producers in Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu gets around 300 days of sun in a year. According to the Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission’s website, the deal states that the state-run distribution utility will contribute Rs. 7.01 (11 cents) per kilowatt-hour for power generated from solar photovoltaic plants and Rs. 11.03 a kilowatt-hour to plant using solar thermal technology.
The solar policy which was introduced in 2012, planned for almost 6 per cent of electricity consumption by energy consumers from solar. According to the plan, Tamil Nadu has only availed 109 megawatts of solar plants till date.
Two years back, Tamil Nadu announced for installing 3,000 MW by 2015. When state distribution utility and regulator separately tried to lower the tariff, it thereby resulted to delayed investments overlooking the rates reached with developers through an auction of projects.
The latest tariff, which plant will be able to make in next 25 years assuming that the investors won’t claim accelerated depreciation tax benefits. For those that do, plan projects, Rs. 6.28 a kilowatt-hour for photovoltaic plants and Rs. 9.88 for solar-thermal plants. Photovoltaic panels focus on converting rays directly to electricity while Solar-thermal technology involves, sunlight on liquids to produce steam to run conventional turbines.
