solar thermal power plant. This was mooted during a meeting between
Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah and
Electricity Minister Arcot N. Veeraswami here on Saturday. Mr.
Veeraswami told The Hindu that the capital cost of installing a solar
power plant was high and the per MW cost was in the range of Rs.18
crore to Rs. 20 crore. This was why Central assistance was required.
Tamil Nadu Electricity Board chairman C.P. Singh said the Centre had
suggested that the proposed project could be implemented as a joint
venture involving Union and State governments. The Union Minister also
indicated the Centre's willingness to support modernisation and
capacity upgrading of the Board's demonstration windmills installed at
Kayathar in Tirunelveli district. The State government submitted a
memorandum to Dr. Abdullah, seeking Central grant for expansion of the
transmission network in tune with the rising capacity addition of
windmills. In spite of the constraints of the wind power sector the
State has been promoting the green energy. As on January 31, 2009,
Tamil Nadu accounts for around 42 per cent of the country's total
installed capacity of 9,756 MW of wind energy, the memorandum stated.
The State also sought Central assistance for establishing 17
co-generation plants in cooperative and public sugar mills with a
capacity of 234 MW and modernisation of the mills at a cost of
Rs.1,500 crore. Dr. Abdullah assured the State that apart from
examining the request, he would take it up with Union Agriculture
Minister for possible funding through the Department of Cooperation at
the Centre, Mr. Singh said.
The Hindu, June 21
No comments:
Post a Comment