Dec 29 2010
Tamil Nadu, a southern state of India, has announced its action plan to combat climate change and to encourage renewable energy production in line with the Central government sponsored National Action Plan for Climate Change (NAPCC).
The Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC) also has introduced a 14% renewable energy purchase obligation (RPO) to make it mandatory for the utility companies to buy renewable energy.
In a recent solar convention hosted by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), M K Stalin, the deputy chief minister of the state, said, that the state government generates around 5,500 MW of renewable energy, which roughly represents 33% of the total installed renewable energy power generation of India. He explained that the state utilizes renewable energy sources such as bio-mass power, wind power, small sized hydro power generations and bagasse-based co-generation to generate clean energy. He explained that during 2009-2010, the state has received around 9,600 million units of electric power from renewable energy sources representing nearly 13.12% of the grid connected power, thus being ahead of most of the states in renewable energy usage. Stalin said that Tamil Nadu was the first state to make use of wind energy in India and as of today produces nearly 43% of the total wind generated power in India.
He explained that the state has plans to harness the copious solar radiation effectively by giving importance to solar power generation. He noted that the state government has announced Rs.18.45 as tariff per unit of solar power against Rs.17.91 offered by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission under RPSSGP of the Solar Mission and has given sanction for seven 1 MW solar projects under the scheme.
Source: http://tnerc.tn.nic.in/