Union minister Pralhad Joshi has urged Tamil Nadu to speed up approvals and grid connectivity for renewable-energy projects, warning that delays could hurt the industry even when the state has valid reasons to review earlier permissions. The appeal comes as the state weighs approvals granted for wind and solar projects under the previous government.
Joshi, who holds the portfolios of new and renewable energy, education, and consumer affairs, food and public distribution, made the remarks at the inauguration of the eighth edition of Windergy, an exhibition for wind turbine and supporting equipment manufacturers. State electricity and law minister C T R Nirmal Kumar was present at the event.
“The grant of connectivity should not be delayed, even though you may have valid reasons to doubt approvals given by the previous government, because ultimately the industry suffers,” Joshi said, according to the report.
The remarks come against the backdrop of the Tamil Nadu government’s decision to review approvals issued for renewable-energy projects during the previous administration. The government has held back approvals for some green-energy projects over suspected malpractices and placed engineers under suspension, the report said. The minister’s intervention underlines the operational tension between examining potentially irregular permissions and maintaining continuity for project developers and equipment manufacturers.
Joshi said the Union government would support states working to expand renewable energy. He also highlighted the Centre’s plans to repower ageing windmills, a process intended to increase generation capacity from existing wind sites and equipment.
Tamil Nadu has about 700MW of older wind capacity in windmills below 2MW that is due for repowering, Joshi said. Repowering can involve replacing older, lower-capacity machines with newer turbines, but its progress also depends on approvals, evacuation infrastructure and access to the transmission network. The minister’s remarks did not specify a timeline for the repowering programme in the state.
The Union minister also said India’s wind-energy sector recorded its highest annual installation of 6.05GW in FY2026. He expressed confidence that annual installations would exceed that figure in FY2027 and linked the expected growth to the national ambition of reaching 100GW of installed wind capacity by 2030.
For Tamil Nadu, the availability of transmission infrastructure is a parallel constraint. Nirmal Kumar appealed to the Centre to expand the Green Energy Corridor, known as GC3, to more parts of the state. He said expanding the corridor over the next four to five years could allow Tamil Nadu to achieve three to four times greater renewable-energy growth than currently anticipated.
The state minister said transmission planning needed to account for long-term requirements so that the network would not have to be expanded again after the next phase of renewable-energy growth. His comments place grid capacity alongside approvals as a central requirement for adding wind and solar power.
The immediate issue for project developers is whether pending permissions and connectivity applications will move forward while the state reviews earlier approvals. The Centre’s position, as stated by Joshi, is that scrutiny should continue where there are valid grounds, but that delays in granting connectivity should not leave the renewable-energy industry stalled. The state’s review process and the proposed expansion of the Green Energy Corridor will determine how quickly the additional capacity can be brought into operation.
