The State is poised to achieve the renewable target of 3,000 megawatt (MW) through solar power in the current financial year, with several projects lined up to the extent of 2,000 MW, said Governor Banwarilal Purohit here on Thursday.
The Governor, inaugurating a workshop on Advanced Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Technologies and Vendors Meet 2018 at IIT Madras, said the State had already installed solar power generation capacity of 2,034 MW, as of March 2018.
The solar workshop was organised by the Andhra Chamber of Commerce in association with Cares Renewables Pvt Ltd, the Ministry of MSME and the Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency (TEDA).
Mr. Purohit said the Union government had given a boost to solar energy producing companies by reducing the solar panel import duty by 5%, in the current budget. This was expected to lead to reduction in roof top solar PV installation costs by 15 to 20%.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, having set a target of 175 gigawatt (GW) of solar power generation, had already achieved 20 GW in the country, the Governor said. There could be further growth since the solar power tariff had been reduced from ₹15 per kilowatt (KW) to ₹2.44 per KW in 2017.
J.P. Sam Prasad, managing director, Hild Energy Private Limited, in his special address, said the advancement in solar technology had helped bring down power tariff.
Mr. Prasad said floating a solar project similar to that on the Narmada canal was significant due to its benefits, such as decreased space, reduced evaporation and better performance.
