ITC commissions 14.9MW solar plant in TN

Chennai, Dec 28 Multi-business company ITC Ltd on Tuesday said it has commissioned a 14.9 MW solar power plant in Dindigul, Tamil Nadu.

According to the company, the 14.9 MW solar power plant was built at an outlay of Rs 76 crore thereby meeting 90 per cent of the company's power needs in Tamil Nadu from renewable sources.

ITC plans to meet 100 per cent of the entire grid electricity requirements from renewable sources by 2030 and contribute meaningfully to combat the threat of climate change, the company said.

Spread over 59 acres, the Dindigul solar plant will generate over 22 million units of renewable energy annually for ITC's hotels, food manufacturing plants, paper manufacturing facility, and printing and packaging factories in Tamil Nadu.

"At ITC, we have relentlessly pursued a mission for environmental stewardship through a gamut of large-scale endeavours that comprehensively address the threat of climate change. Our large-scale investments in renewable energy assets are an integral part of our low carbon strategy aimed at making a meaningful contribution to a net zero economy," Sanjiv Rangrass, Group Head - ITC Life Sciences & Technology, Central Projects, EHS & Quality Assurance said.

ITC's renewable portfolio comprises 138 MW of wind power plants and 14 MW of solar plants with 53MW of additional solar capacity under execution.

Currently, projects are also underway in other sources of renewable energy like biomass boilers. The company has made investments of over Rs 1,000 crore in renewable energy assets to date.

Renewable energy powers 20 factories, nine hotels, and six office buildings of ITC in Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Bihar, Haryana, West Bengal, and Punjab.

In 2018, ITC became the first private sector entity to wheel renewable energy across states through the Inter-State Open Access mechanism. Currently, ITC's 46MW Wind power plant in Andhra Pradesh supplies power to over 15 ITC establishments in eight states. This has led to a higher renewable energy utilisation for the company.

Besides investing in new renewable energy assets, ITC, as part of its Sustainability 2.0 agenda aims to achieve a 50 per cent reduction in specific emissions and a 30 per cent reduction in specific energy consumption by 2030 over a 2014-15 baseline. Such efforts in decarbonising energy consumption through low-carbon energy solutions will be met through large-scale digitalisation and R&D initiatives, cross-sectoral collaborations, and partnerships.

ITC is an exemplar in environment stewardship. The Company was recently rated at the 'Leadership Level' with scores of 'A-' for both Climate Change and Water Security by CDP, one of the most reputed independent global platforms for disclosures on environmental impacts.