Solar and Wind Power growth status in Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu has lagged behind in wind power and in the year ending 2013-2014, it added only 107 MW of wind energy not a very big achievement for a state that was until recently a leader in wind energy sector in India. The growth in the wind sector has been sluggish with an average of 616 MW being added per year. The growth has been slow after the period ending 2012.

This is in spite of the fact that fiscal incentive measures such as generation-based incentive (GBI) scheme were reintroduced. However, the increase in the wind sector was largely attributed to accelerated depreciation (AD) which was withdrawn in 2012 and the sector has gone downward since then. But this is a national trend and not just limited to Tamil Nadu.

Solar on the other hand has done remarkably well and solar power of capacity 81 MW was added in 2013-2014. The total installed capacity is now 101 MW.

79 MW of solar power was commissioned under the Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) scheme the previous year and rooftop units of about 2 MW were also setup.

The Indian government has for its part initiated a programme to assess solar radiation resource of the country. In Phase-I under this programme, Solar Radiation Monitoring Stations have been established at various part of the country through Centre Wind Energy Technology (C-WET), Chennai. The data from various stations is transmitted to a central server maintained at C-WET and is made available to various stakeholders after carrying out quality checks.

The BJP which is largely touted to form the next government has also expressed its desire to take the National Solar Mission forward.

Image credits for Tamil Nadu map www.d-maps.com