The central government is planning to provide a subsidy of Rs.10 for every unit of power generated using solar technology, Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah said on Monday.
Mr. Abdullah, who was inaugurating the first manufacturing unit of WinWinD Power Energy Private (WinWinD) in India at Vengal, Tiruvallur district, said the cost for generating a unit of solar power came to Rs.18. To encourage people to go in for solar energy in a large way, the Centre would provide a subsidy of Rs.10. The exact quantum to be allotted would be finalised soon and more details would be revealed in the National Solar Mission to be unveiled by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on November 14.
The government, he said, was committed to developing solar energy in a big way. “The National Solar Mission will have more components that would encourage industries to put factories and make more money. Every house should have these panels. Both the Centre and State Governments should cooperate with each other to bring down the cost of production.”
“During my recent visit to Germany, I saw solar plates installed on the roof of every household. After using the generated power, the excess was transmitted to the grid. Though India ranked number fifth in the world in harnessing wind energy, it remains slightly behind others in use of solar technology as it is looking for time-tested technology,” he said.
Dr. Abdullah complimented the Tamil Nadu government and Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi for focusing their attention on solar energy to meet the energy crisis.
He also said his Ministry was taking steps to ensure that funds were made easily available to the investors to set up solar manufacturing units.
Electricity Minister Arcot N. Veerasamy said, “The State is very much interested in generating power through solar technology. As far as non-conventional energy is concerned, we have exhausted our facilities. We have no scope to generate power from hydro as the rains are down and storage is limited.”
He urged the Centre to provide subsidy to help the State to generate 100 MW of solar energy.
The Minister said that by 2014, Tamil Nadu would be in a position to generate 10,000 MW of power through thermal power stations and export it to other States.
Ilkka Hakala, CEO, WinWind, said the facility would assemble and test highly reliable nacelles hubs and produce high quality rotor blades for global customers. The initial production capacity was four wind turbine generators (WTGs) of 12 blades a day and it would be scaled to 8 WTGs (24 blades) a day.
“The plant would provide employment to over 1,000 people and the investment is Rs.1,075 crore,” said V.Srinivasan, group CEO of Siva Group.
