West Bengal is expecting to generate business worth Rs. 10,000 crore from clean energies like solar power over the next ten years, Managing Director of West Bengal Green Energy Development Corporation S P Gonchaudhri said.
Trade fair
Addressing a session on solar energy, held at the India Industrial Trade Fair (IITF) organised by the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, he said the State had good solar potential and the country’s first megawatt-level solar photovoltaic power plant was working in the Asansol area for more than three months. The IITF, which is into its 23rd year, has dedicated this year’s fair to renewable energy.
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He said West Bengal would also cater to the need of this clean energy (solar energy) in the North Eastern States and that the State had the potential to emerge as the major hub for the solar infrastructure industry.
Among the companies which have marked their footprints in the State’s solar energy map or are taking efforts to do so are: Reliance Industries, the Bangalore-based Suntechnics Energy Systems, Geetanjali Solar Enterprises, Synergy Renewable Energy and Environ Energy Tech Services.
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Mr. Gonchaudhri handed over awards instituted by Photovoltaic Science Congress (PV-SEC) to Reliance Industries, Geetanjali Solar and Synergy. PV-SEC is an international body working on solar energy and is chaired on a rotational basis by countries with major interests in solar energy.
The WBGEDC chief said that the National Solar Mission was likely to be formally declared next month. It is a major initiative of the Central and State governments to promote ecologically-sustainable growth while addressing energy security challenge and establishing it as a global leader in solar energy by creating policy conditions for its diffusion across the country.
The mission targets to create an enabling framework for ramping up capacity of grid-connected solar power generation to 1,000 MW by 2013.