After achieving a significantly large solar power footprint across the State, the Chhattisgarh Government is gearing up to tap wind power in several parts of the State. The Chhattisgarh Renewable Energy Development Agency (CREDA) has invited offers from reputed Wind Farm owners, IPPs, wind farm developers and Wind Turbine manufacturers or empanelled lattice Wind Mast fabricators for implementation of Wind Resource Assessment (WRA) Programme and subsequent development as per the State Government’s and National Institute of Wind Engergy ( formerly known as Centre for Wind Energy Technology ) ( C-WET) guidelines in Chhattisgarh State.
It has also invited of Expression of Interest (EoI) for Implementation of Wind Resource Assessment in Uncovered / New Areas under NCEF Scheme and subsequent development at various locations in Chhattisgarh State. India ranks 4th in the world in terms of power generation. This was stated by Piyush Goyal, Minister of State for Power, Coal & New and Renewable Energy (IC) Piyush Goyal in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha.
The Minister further stated that in terms of wind energy, India ranks 5th and in terms of solar energy, India ranks 11th in the world. To make India a hub for renewable energy manufacturing, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has been promoting private investment in renewable energy through an attractive mix of fiscal and financial incentives, Goyal, had informed in a written reply to a question in the lok Sabha.
This includes capital subsidy through Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme (M-SIPS) and excise and custom duty exemption. The Government is encouraging participation from other countries by allowing 100% Foreign Direct Investment in Renewable Energy, he mentioned.
The Minister further stated that the an estimated potential of 897 Gigawatt ( GW) has been identified from various renewable energy sources in the country which includes 749 GW from solar, 103 GW from wind, 25 GW from bio-energy and 20 GW from small hydro power.
MNRE has proposed grid power of 175 GW from various renewable energy sources by the year 2022. This includes 100 GW from solar, 60 GW from wind, 10 GW from bio-power and 5 GW from small hydro power, he said. The geothermal program of the Ministry is presently in research and development stage. The cost of generation of electricity from geothermal energy is presently very high, hence, the promotion of geothermal energy production of power will not be possible in short and medium terms, the Minister said.
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has been carrying out a Wind Resource Assessment (WRA) Programme in the country through the Centre for Wind Energy Technology (C-WET), Chennai in association with State Nodal Agencies.
The Ministry has initiated a new scheme on implementation of Wind Resource Assessment in Uncovered/ New Areas with an aim to assess the realistic potential at 100m level in 500 new stations under the National Clean Energy Fund (NCEF) also to be implemented through C-WET.
As per the website of National Institute of Wind Energy, the State-wise list of Wind Monitoring Stations for which Micro Survey has been done which is as follows: Andhra Pradesh (11), Gujarat (21), Karnataka (15), Kerala (3), Madhya Pradesh (5), Maharashtra (17), Odisha (2), Rajasthan (3), Tamil Nadu (19), West Bengal (97).
On the solar energy front, significant to mention here is that Chhattisgarh achieved a total commissioned capacity of 7.1000 MW from grid connected solar PV power projects as on March 31, 2014, according to the 2013-14 annual report of Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.
The total commissioned capacity of such Solar PV power projects was 4.000 MW as on March 31, 2013 in Chhattisgarh, it stated.
The grid connected power projects were commissioned under Phase-I of Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) . A total of 11 projects of 50.5 MW capacity under the ‘migration scheme’ and 26 projects of 140 MW capacity under Batch-I were commissioned during the year across the country.
The JNNSM is a key initiative of the Union Government and the State Governments to promote ecologically sustainable growth while addressing India’s energy security challenges. The Mission is one of the several initiatives that were part of National Action Plan on Climate Change, it stated.
The JNNSM was launched on January 11, 2010 and the Mission targets included- deployment of 20,000 MW of grid connected solar power by 2022, 2000 MW of off-grid solar applications including 20 million solar lights by 2022, 20 million square metre of solar thermal collector area besides creating favourable conditions for developing solar manufacturing capability in the country and to support R&D and capacity building activities to achieve grid parity by 2022. The Mission is to be completed in three phases, the report stated.
For the first phase of the Mission, the Union Cabinet last year approved a target to set up 1,100 MW grid connected solar plants including 100 MW capacity plants as rooftop and other small solar power plants till March 2013. In addition, a target of 200 MW capacity equivalent of off-grid solar applications and 7 million square metre solar thermal collector area were also approved.
The Union Cabinet in 2013 had also approved setting up of a large utility scale grid power plants through bundling of solar power with the unallocated thermal power available from NTPC stations and the policy to provide generation based incentive for small grid connected solar power plants, it stated.
Moreover, Raipur city is among nine other cities chosen by the Centre last year among the ‘Pilot Solar Cities’ for implementation of its ambitious ‘Development of Solar Cities Programme’, according to the annual report of the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy for 2013-14.
The other eight cities chosen for ‘Pilot Solar Cities’ programmes were-Rajkot, Faridabad, Shimla, Thane, Shirdi, Aizwal, Amritsar and Agartala. As per the report, the development of the ‘Solar Cities Programme’ aims at minimum 10 per cent reduction in the projected demand of conventional energy at the end of five years, the report stated.
The aforesaid objectives are to be achieved through a combination of energy efficient measures and enhancing supply from renewable energy sources, it stated. The Ministry assists the municipal corporations and the urban local bodies in preparation of a Master Plan for increasing energy efficiency and renewable energy supply in the city, setting up institutional arrangements for the implementation of the Master Plan and the awareness generation and capacity building activities. The Centre had set the target of supporting 60 cities/towns for development as ‘solar/green cities’. Under the programme, during 2013-14, a total of 46 cities were sanctioned of which Master Plan of 39 cities were finalised.
A total of 15 cities are to be developed as per the modified ‘Development of ‘Solar Cities Programme’ prepared in 2014 for installation of renewable energy projects/systems with financial support upto Rs2.50 crore for each city and 8 cities as ‘Modal Solar Cities’ with financial support upto Rs9.50 crore for each city, the report stated.
The pilot project on the Grid Interactive rooftop small SPV power plant project was successfully implemented in ‘Chandigarh Model Solar City.’ This has demonstrated the feasibility of small grid connected SPV Rooftop in the country, it stated. So far ( 2013-14), cumulative 6.25 MW have been sanctioned/approved under the ‘Solar City Programme’ (1.74 MW) and rooftop programme (4.51 MW) including 3.21 MWp in the year 2013-14 for Chandigarh city, the report stated.