India targets additional power through renewable energy
Monday, 12 May 2003, 19:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: India is targeting an additional 450 MW power generation capacity this year with wind energy powering most of the new capacity. With a current generation capacity of around 4,000 MW through renewable energy sources, of which around 1,870 MW has been created by harnessing wind energy, India has emerged among the top five countries globally in the field of wind, solar photovoltaic and biogas energy, said Ajai Vikram Singh, secretary of the ministry of non-conventional energy sources, Saturday. Of the total renewable power generated in the country, around 3,878 MW is being transmitted through the national grid, while about 120 MW is distributed in local grids. As power-starved India targets additional generation capacity of 100,000 MW by 2012, renewable sources of energy including wind, solar energy, biomass, industrial and municipal waste and small hydro projects are expected to contribute 10,000 MW. "With the Electricity Bill having been passed by the government we expect more private sector investment to come into renewable energy sector. Even now the bulk of the investment has been coming from the private sector," said Singh. Renewable energy figures high in India's power-for-all plans with 18,000 remote villages, which cannot be economically connected to the power grid, expected to get their own power system through this means. "Of the 18,000 remote villages, the plan is to provide power to around 14,000 villages through solar power," said Ajit K. Gupta, adviser in the ministry of non-conventional energy sources. "While around 62 MW of solar power has been added so far, about one million village homes have been able to benefit from solar photovoltaic systems installed thus far."
Source: IANS
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