The Union Territory of Puducherry is geared towards meeting its full energy requirements from renewable sources, Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy said in New Delhi on Wednesday.
Participating in the Chief Ministerial plenary session at the second Global Re-Invest Renewable Energy Investors Meet and Expo, Mr. Narayanasamy said the government hoped to meet its objective of using green energy for sustainable growth with the support of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.
The Chief Minister pointed out that all the four regions of the Union Territory of Puducherry geographically enjoyed a good tropical climate and had a huge potential for generation of power from solar resources. The solar insolation (radiation) in these regions was around 5 to 5.5 kilowatt per hour per square meter and therefore conducive to solar power generation.
Rooftop space
In the Union Territory, where affordability and availability of land was a major issue, the significance of utilising the unused rooftop space for development of solar power plant was very important, he said. Under rooftop space, till date around 2.5 megawatt installed capacity of solar photo voltaic power plant had been achieved and this value was likely to increase to 5 megawatt by the end of this year.
The prospective resource potential available for development of solar photo voltaic power plant in Puducherry was estimated to be around 50 megawatt. “The administration has proposed to set up solar power plant of capacity 31.5 megawatt in the Union Territory of Puducherry, with the financial support from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA),” Mr. Narayanasamy said.
Since concession had been extended by the Ministry of Power for transmission of solar and other renewable energy power through Inter State Transmission Line upto 2022, this administration was looking forward to avail solar power from the locations outside of the Union Territory of Puducherry. The development and use of available solar resources would not only add to the prosperity of the region, but it also reduced the carbon footprint of the earth.
The Renewable Energy Agency, Puducherry, was striving towards harnessing the maximum renewable energy potential available in the Union Territory in addition to raising awareness among the public and end users. The Energy Education Park had been developed which housed the working model of various renewable energy generation units, he said.
Areas of concern
Pointing out that the areas of concern for uptake of rooftop solar, was lack of awareness, reliability of the technology, high initial investment and after sale assistance, Mr. Narayanasamy appealed to stakeholders at the meet to “act to bridge the gap between the policy and the execution”.
The Chief Minister drew attention to the scheme of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy for implementing Grid Connected Solar Power Plant on residential, social and institutional Sector with 30% Central Financial Assistance.
However, in the North Eastern States including Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Jammu and Kashmir, the Government of India implemented the above scheme with 70% Central Financial Assistance.
Mr. Narayanasamy requested that the Union Territory of Puducherry, which was solely dependent on Centre for funds, may be treated as special category and extended the 70% Central Financial Assistance on a par with special category States and Union Territories so as to cover more beneficiaries and to achieve the target. Further, in case of extension of 70% Central Financial Assistance, the State Government would provide 30% as State Financial Assistance and 1 kilowatt power rooftop solar power plant would be installed in all Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana houses, the Chief Minister said.
Hosted by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, the meet also concurrently featured the First Assembly of International Solar Alliance (ISA) and the 2nd Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) Renewable Energy Ministerial Meeting.
