‘About 4,000 MW of solar energy projects affected by corruption during DMK rule’
Solar energy projects of nearly 4,000 MW are affected in Tamil Nadu because of corruption in the DMK government that was in power for the
Solar energy projects of nearly 4,000 MW are affected in Tamil Nadu because of corruption in the DMK government that was in power for the last five years, said C. Narasimhan, president of the Indian Solar Association. In Virudhunagar alone, a sub-station coming up for 1,750 MW of solar energy was completely sold by some of the DMK Ministers. There are similar complaints in other parts of the State too.
The TVK-government has suspended all these projects and taken action on the officials. Those who had planned to invest in solar energy through these projects should now apply online and get the government approvals, he said. Welcoming the announcement in the recent Tamil Nadu Budget extending subsidy for rooftop solar energy, he said the Central government provided ₹78,000 a KW as subsidy under the PM Rooftop Solar Scheme.
The Tamil Nadu government has said it will give an additional ₹22,000 for one lakh connections. While 60 lakh households have benefitted from the PM Rooftop Solar Scheme in the country, less than 50,000 have benefitted in Tamil Nadu and just about 1,000 applications may be pending in the State. On shortage of cells for production of solar panels, he said that the country had indigenous capacity to produce 65 GW of solar cells while the solar module production capacity is 161 GW.
The stakeholders had appealed to the government to permit cell imports till India had the capacity to meet the demands of the module producers. Some of the industry associations went to the court and obtained stay. Now, imported cells have started coming in, he added.
The BriefWire