Raasi Green Earth Energy, part of Bangalore-based Raasi Group of Companies, has proposed to set up a solar park in a southern district of Tamil Nadu over 500 acres involving an investment of Rs 920 crore in cooperation with Tidco, state government’s nodal agency for industrial development. The proposed project envisages 100 mw of solar power generation.

The Tamil Nadu government has been attempting aggressive measures on promoting solar power projects in the power-starved state since the launch of its solar energy policy, which envisages the state generating 3,000 mw of solar power, through utility scale projects, rooftops, and REC route by 2015, in October this year.

Raasi signed an agreement with Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (Tidco) on Thursday in the presence of state chief minister J Jayalalithaa for the proposed project. “I assure you of the total cooperation of the state government. I am happy to know that you plan to expand the capacity to 1,000 mw, and I hope that this will prove to be a launching platform for many more such solar power projects to be established in Tamil Nadu,” Jayalalithaa said in a statement.

The proposed solar park will be developed near Paramakudi, about 500 km from Chennai. The park, being conceived in PPP (public private partnership) mode, will comprise all necessary infrastructure, adequate water supply, power, and storm water drainage facilities, among others to attract investors and solar power producers to set up the projects.

The solar park, first such project to be set up under the aegis of sta­te’s new solar policy, is likely to be completed in 12 months. The project may generate about 2,000 jobs, both directly and indirectly.

The state government has planned to set up solar parks with a capacity of at least 50 mw in 24 districts, to lure solar power investors into the state. It targets to achieve generation of 1,000 mw of solar power in the next five years by setting up several solar parks across the state through Tidco in cooperation with private sector.

Tamil Nadu has reasonably high solar radiation (5.6 to 6 kwh/sq m) with about 300 clear sunny days in a year and southern Tamil Nadu is considered to be one of the most suitable regions in the country for development of solar power projects.