More than one lakh lED bulbs have been distributed in Chhattisgarh under Central Government’s Domestic Efficient lighting Programme (DElP) in the State.
There were 1,24,504 number of lED bulbs distributed as on November 27, 2015 in Chhattisgarh, officials stated.
Notably, in October this year, the Chhattisgarh Government informed that it is distributing solar lamps to forest management committees/ committee members and forest dwellers of 22 forest circles of 16 districts under State Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (State CAMPA).
An amount of Rs12.56 crore has been approved under Chief Minister's Solar lamp Free Distribution Scheme for free distribution of 93,904 solar lED lights and 18.33 lakh solar lED lamps, officials had stated.
The Forest Department officials informed that as many as 1780 Solar lED lights have been distributed in Bijapur forest circle, 2957 in Dantewada, 8198 in Sukma, 6113 in Bastar, 2040 in Narayanpur, 4344 in North Kondagaon, 3960 in South Kondagaon, 3197 in Kanker, 2592 in East Bhanupratappur, 1864 in West Bhanuprapatpur, 2960 in Rajnandgaon, 2569 in Khairagarh, 3492 in Kawardha, 10652 in Dhamtari, 7353 in Gariaband, 3273 in Udanti Sitanadi Tiger Reserve, 3148 in Koriya, 2502 in Manendragarh, 6644 in Jashpur, 5842 in Surguja, 3380 in Surajpur, 5044 in Balrampur, 1631 in Balod and 1367 lED lights have been distributed in Baloda Bazar to committees and forest dwellers under CAMPA.
The Chhattisgarh Government in a bid to significantly bring down the cost of power consumption for public utilities such as street lights, it is now opting for Solar Photovoltaic powered street lights across the State.
The project is being implemented by Chhattisgarh Renewable Energy Development Agency (CREDA).
Notably, CREDA has also been implementing energy efficient lED lighting projects in the State in the areas of outdoor and indoor lightings. Due to the initiatives of CREDA, many State Government departments have implemented lED lighting projects, officials stated.
In many cases, the departments require assistance from CREDA for implementation of such projects, they stated.
The State’s high-tech administrative capital Naya Raipur already has lED street lights installed.
Notably, after achieving a significantly large solar power footprint across the State, the Chhattisgarh Government is now getting all set to also tap wind power in several parts of the State.
CREDA had recently gone 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.
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 last year 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.