New Renewable Energy Policy Soon For India

The State government would soon come out with a new renewable energy policy to encourage investments in the sector.Under the proposed policy, land acquisitions and conversions from agricultural to non-agricultural use would be simplified for those setting up solar plants, said G V Balaram, Managing Director, Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Limited (KRE-D-L).The draft policy has been submitted to the government. "Entrepreneurs who are putting up solar plants need not wait for land conversion from agricultural to non-agricultural purposes. We know that setting up solar energy plants is land intensive, we have liberalised the norms," he said. He was speaking at a plenary session on 'Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy in India' organised as part of the third Fraunhofer Innovation and Technology platform on 'Powering a Greener Future' in the City recently. In response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's target of generating one lakh MW of solar energy in the next three to four years, KREDL is revising its target from 2,000 MW to 10,000 MW. As regards roof-top net metering of solar energy, he said the response has been good and in the next one year, the State is hopeful of adding 1,000 MW to the grid. "No other state has such a policy," he remarked.The State is also coming out with a pilot study to connect irrigation pumpsets to solar energy. If the pumps are connected to the grid, there can be savings in terms of energy and water, Balaram added.Deputy Consul General of German Consulate, Bengaluru, Andrea Christ said partnership in energy sector between India and Germany would be further strengthened in the future. SourcePost from CleanTechLaw.org: www.cleantechlaw.org