A land assessment for the Mayiladuthurai district in Tamil Nadu, India was carried out using a geospatial digital tool LiLa (LifeLands) developed in-house. LiLa uses satellite imagery, AI & GIS Mapping to create critical data-based insights and visualization that supports decision-making by providing detailed information. This includes geo-spatial and socio-economic data-layers to address the core aspects of sustainable land-use management. It identifies and evaluates unused lands for its potential in terms of solar energy, reforestation and water management.

The objective of this report is to identify unused lands for this district and evaluate to what extent these unused lands can be utilized to meet the state’s solar energy target of 20 GW by the year 2030. The lands were evaluated based on multiple levels of criteria that accounted for plot size, and their distance from evacuation infrastructure, roads, railways and waterbodies. The lands are also further assessed based on their potential for climate action, such as areas that are suitable for forestation and water harvesting. 

The assessment indicated that a target of 0.29 GW of solar installation is achievable with lands that meet the technical criteria. Lands ranked medium can achieve a cumulative capacity of 0.46 GW with a total area of 1,860 acres. Lands ranked high with a total area 698 acres can achieve a capacity of 0.17 GW.