Cabinet clears Rs.8,100-cr for clean energy

Buoyed by the response from Madhya Pradesh, the Centre has decided to double the capacity target to 40 GW at an investment of Rs. 8,100-cr by 2020. In this connection, CCEA recently approved reworking of the scheme for development of solar parks and ultra mega solar power projects as well as enhancing the capacity. The projects will be set up with the Centre's financial support and the total capacity, when operational, will generate 64 billion units of electricity annually leading to abatement of around 55 million tons of carbon-dioxide annually over its life cycle, Energy Minister, Piyush Goyal said, adding that the enhanced capacity would ensure setting up of at least 50 solar parks each with a capacity of 500 MW and above in various parts of the country.

Similarly, smaller parks in Himalayan and other hilly states, where contiguous land may be difficult to acquire in view of the difficult terrain, will also be considered. The capacity of the solar park scheme has been enhanced after considering the demand from the states. The solar parks will be developed in collaboration with State governments/UTs, whereby, the developer will then be sanctioned a grant of up to Rs. 25 lakh to prepare a Detailed Project Report (DPR). Thereafter, Central Financial Assistance of up to Rs. 20 lakh/MW or 30% of the project cost including grid-connectivity cost will be released as per the milestones set in the scheme. The government is also working on a policy to encourage solar equipment manufacturing. There is considerable interest to set up solar equipment manufacturing in India. After consultation with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the benefit of M-SIPS will also be extended to solar equipment makers in the country.