Tamil Nadu aims to achieve net zero by 2050, the state’s IT minister, Palanivel Thiagarajan, said here today.
Pointing out that India has set itself a target of 2070 to become ‘net zero’, Thiagarajan said that the country cannot meet the target unless a progressive state like Tamil Nadu does it early.
Net Zero refers to a situation where all the greenhouse gases (such as carbon dioxide and methane) released into the atmosphere are balanced by removal of the gases from the atmosphere by absorbing them back.
He was speaking at a meeting at IIT Madras Research Park, on the occasion of the visit of Michelle Lujan Grisham, Governor of the state of New Mexico, USA.
Later, while answering a question, Thiagarajan said that the state was working on a policy towards achieving the target. He said it could take a year for the state to come up with the policy.
Thiagarajan said that Tamil Nadu was the “No.1 state in the country” in terms of renewable energy capacity but there was room to grow further. [According to data provided by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Tamil Nadu, with 22.75 GW of renewable energy capacity, ranks behind Gujarat (28.40 GW) and Rajasthan (28.17 GW).]
Speaking on the occasion, Chris Hodges, Consul General of USA in Chennai, said that he was “excited” about the opportunities for new partnerships between Tamil Nadu and New Mexico in the areas of green tech and clean energy.
“We are working constantly at the Consulate across a variety of fronts to promote new partnerships with American universities, American graduate students, American startups, and businesses in the arena of green technology. We believe Tamil Nadu holds promise as a “green tech” destination, building upon its presence in solar and wind as well as an industrial base well suited to support new green-forward investments,” he said.
IIT-M Research Park unveils 1 MWhr battery
Coinciding with the visit of the Governor of New Mexico, IIT Madras Research Park (IITMRP), which is an incubation centre run by a not-for-profit company, unveiled its home-grown, 1 MWhr Lithium-ion battery. The storage system, developed by the IITMRP’s Center of Excellence for Energy and Telecom (CEET), is for its own use, but the technology is available for license.
Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala, President, IITMRP, told journalists that the cost of stored power worked out to around ₹2 lesser than the cost of power supplied by the state’s utility.
IITMRP is a 1.2 million sq. Ft campus that houses R&D facilities for more than 250 companies, including 150 startups and employs 5,000 people. Apart from the 1 MW rooftop solar it has, it has also deployed 4 MW of solar and 2.1 MW of wind on ‘group captive’ basis. Together, the renewable energy capacity covers about 90 per cent of its needs.
The total generated energy will rarely meet IITMRP’s demand exactly and, as such, the complex needs to store some of its wind and solar power. The 1 MWhr battery storage system has been put up for that purpose.