The state-owned Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) India has reached another milestone with the latest commissioning of a solar project in Tamil Nadu.

In a filing on the Bombay Stock Exchange, Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC India), a government-owned fossil-fuel mining and power generation company has announced that it has commissioned capacity of 95 MW out of a 109 MW solar project in Ramanathapuram district of Tamil Nadu.

According to the filing, with the completion of this project, NLC’s total renewable energy capacity had exceeded 1 GW.

NLC India also announced that the commercial operation date for this project is September 6, 2019.

The project was part of the 709 MW capacity awarded to NLC by the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TANGEDCO). In July 2017, NLC India had tendered a solar EPC contract for 709 MW to be developed in the state of Tamil Nadu. It had set 50 MW as the minimum project capacity at a single location and 12 months from date of issuance of the letter of award as the project completion timeframe for the project.

Recently, in March 2019, Mercom reported that NLC also commissioned 200 MW of grid-connected solar projects in the state of Tamil Nadu. This commissioned capacity was part of the 500 MW of grid-connected solar PV projects currently under implementation in Tamil Nadu. NLC had commissioned 300 MW in May 2018.

Earlier, the company signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Tamil Nadu government to develop 2,640 MW of lignite-based thermal power projects and 1,000 MW of solar projects in the state.

According to Mercom’s India Solar Project Tracker, Tamil Nadu currently has nearly 2.7 GW of solar projects in operation while approximately 1.2 GW of large-scale projects is in the pipeline.

Image credit: EDF Renewables