Solar energy promotion initiatives taken up by Solar Energy Association of Tamil Nadu, a recently floated consortium by industrialists in Tirupur and peripheral areas, has hit a bad trough following the continued depreciation of rupee against the U.S. dollar.
Since most of the constituent appliances like solar panels and inverters to be used for power generation in such parks been imported, the depreciation of rupee has upset the economic calculations of the association.
The association had been planning to set up a model solar power park in Tirupur or in surrounding area and mini solar power parks in various industrial clusters across the State.
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“With imports getting costlier because of the weak rupee, either we have to go ahead by the current value of the rupee (hovering a shade below Rs. 58) which means that the project cost goes up by almost 10 per cent or to wait till rupee recovers,” said association president Raju V.R. Palanisamy.
Mr. Palanisamy added that the option preferred mostly would be to wait for sometime as the expectations were that currency could get stabilised within a month.
The confidence on the currency recovery had primarily arisen in the minds of the entrepreneurs following the statements from Economic Affairs department sources on Wednesday that the currency itself would get corrected with moderation in current account deficit (CAD) expected to take place soon.
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Industrial and economic experts like S. Dhananjayan are of the opinion that unless the Union Government and RBI intervene immediately, the recovery of the rupee would take much longer.
“Industrialists should be allowed to access foreign currency Line of Credit (LoC) by getting the norms on bank guarantee for external commercial borrowing eased so that long term foreign currency inflow takes place,” Mr. Dhananjayan said.
This would reduce the pressure on the rupee, he added.