Tata Power announced Monday that it had signed a pact to invest Rs. 3,000 crore in the Tamil Nadu government for the construction of a new facility in Tirunelveli to produce solar cells and modules.
According to a statement from Tata Power, India’s largest integrated power company, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), was signed by the Tamil Nadu government for an investment of approximately Rs 3,000 crore in a greenfield solar cell manufacturing facility and a 4GW module manufacturing plant. It will be located in Tirunelveli District of Tamil Nadu.
The MoU, according to the statement, outlines both parties’ commitment to encourage clean energy transition and to create jobs in the state. It stated that the investment in the plant will take place over 16 months. The plant will create more than 2,000 jobs directly or indirectly, with most of them being for women.
The MoU was signed by S Krishnan, additional chief secretary to the government of Tamil Nadu, Industries Department, and Praveer Sinha, CEO & MD, Tata Power, in the presence of state chief minister M K Stalin and senior officials of the state.
Tata Power said it is committed to establishing state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in the country and is a forerunner in terms of investing in green technologies.
The company is one of the first to put a solar manufacturing facility in the country in 1991 and since then has regularly upgraded the facility by setting up the Mono-PERC cell line in FY21 at its existing facility in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
Tata Power CEO & MD Praveer Sinha said in the statement, “India has the opportunity to spearhead the usage of clean and green energy solutions to meet its energy requirements. Tata Power Solar’s new production facility, being set up with the support and assistance of Tamil Nadu government, will help to meet the rising demand for clean energy solutions in the country, apart from providing huge employment opportunities.”
Tata Power Solar’s Tamil Nadu facility will be the second manufacturing unit of the company after Bengaluru.
As one of the largest solar manufacturers in India, the company operates a manufacturing unit in Bengaluru, with a production capacity of 635 MW of modules and 500 MW of cells, the company said.
