Exporters to set up solar park.

Member units of Tirupur Export Knitwear Industrial Complex (TEKIC) are planning to set up a solar park and one more wind mill to ensure that the entire 195 industrial units on the 100-acre complex use 'clean and green energy.'

At present, the units in the TEKIC are 'wheeling' 50 lakh units of electricity per annum from the eight wind mills et up at Radhapuram in Tirunelveli district some years back against the total annual power consumption of 1.5 crore units on the premises.

The new projects planned at an estimated outlay of nearly Rs. 23 crore is aimed at bringing down the cost of energy consumption further down.

“New initiatives are now contemplated after been successfully able to reduce energy costs through the utilisation of power wheeled from the eight wind mills that have a total capacity of 4 MW and also by outsourcing of energy from private firms to the tune of 80 lakhs units per annum at cheaper rates.

“This means only 20 lakhs units are now being purchased from Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation annually, ” said TEKIC president N. Mahalingam, who is a prominent apparel manufacturer on the complex premises.

He added that the average cost of power consumed by industrial houses functioning in the complex thus now coming only to Rs. 6.90 per unit against the Rs. 8.22 a unit levied for High Tension connections by Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation.

“With the new projects, the cost is going to come down further,” he said.

The units see immense benefits from the projects in the pipeline, aimed at 100 per cent utilisation of ‘clean and green energy,’ as foreign buyers give preference to apparels made from such 'green belts.'

THE HINDU