In the direction of realizing the resolution of green growth given by Prime Minister Shri Narendrabhai Modi A solid step by Chief Minister Shri Bhupendra Patel
Chief Minister Shri Bhupendra Patel announced the Gujarat Renewable Energy Policy-2023 in the presence of Finance and Energy Minister Shri Kanubhai Desai.
Incentive policy for setting up wind-solar and hybrid technology based renewable generation projects in the state
The objective of this policy is to contribute towards the achievement of the country’s target of Net Zero Emission by reducing the carbon footprint of the state while boosting the economic development of the state by ensuring energy security.
- Estimated 36 GW (Gigawatt) solar and 143 GW (Gigawatt) wind capacity of the state will be utilized.
- By 2030, 50 percent of the total power generation in the state should be achieved through renewable energy.
- This innovative policy is likely to generate investments of approximately five lakh crore rupees
- Power can be exported outside Gujarat through ISTS connected project
- Henceforth ground mounted solar, rooftop solar, floating solar, canal top solar and wind, rooftop wind and wind-solar hybrid projects will be covered under this comprehensive policy.
- Capacity restrictions have been removed for solar, wind and hybrid projects
- Gujarat Energy Development Agency (GEDA) will act as the nodal agency
Gujarat has taken a concrete step towards realizing the green growth vision given by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi by announcing the Gujarat Renewable Energy Policy – 2023.
Chief Minister Shri Bhupendra Patel has announced this new Gujarat Renewable Energy Policy – 2023 in the presence of Finance and Energy Minister Shri Kanubhai Desai.
The policy is a flagship policy encouraging the establishment of renewable generation projects based on wind, solar and hybrid technologies and broadly covering major sources of renewable energy.
Not only this, ground mounted solar, rooftop solar, floating solar, canal top solar and wind, rooftop wind and wind-solar hybrid projects will be covered under this policy.
The operational period of this policy announced by the Chief Minister has been kept until the new policy is announced or till 2028.
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has set India a target of net zero emissions by 2070 by progressively increasing the use of green energy sources.
Along with this target, short term targets have also been set. In which by the year 2030, India has set a target of increasing the capacity of renewable energy to 500 GW and obtaining 50 percent of the country’s total energy requirement from renewable energy.
Gujarat has made provisions to provide various facilities in this policy with the aim of achieving 50 percent of the total power generation through renewable energy by 2030 under this new renewable energy policy to fulfill this name of the Prime Minister.
The potential renewable capacity of the state will be utilized to the maximum and approximately 4 lakh acres of land is expected to be utilized in the upcoming projects under this policy.
Not only this, Gujarat’s Renewable Energy Policy – 2023 is also likely to result in an investment of five lakh crores.
Announced by Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, the benefits under this policy will be applicable for a period of 25 years from the date of project commissioning or the life time period of renewable projects, whichever is earlier.
Gujarat Energy Development Agency – GEDA will act as the nodal agency to issue project registration, validation, commissioning certificate and monthly progress report under this policy.
Also Gujarat Energy Vikas Nigam Limited-GUVNL will carry out the operations as an implementation, coordination and monitoring agency of the policy.
Key highlights and provisions of the Gujarat Renewable Energy Policy – 2023 are as follows –
- There are no restrictions on the capacity to set up RE projects in terms of consumer contract demand.
- RE power settlement against consumer consumption will be carried out based on billing cycle.
- Green Power Supply – 100% RE energy supply on customer request at green power supply tariff fixed by Gujarat Electricity Regulatory Commission-GERC from time to time.
- Option of net metering or gross metering is available for rooftop projects.
- Small scale rooftop wind projects can be installed by consumers.
- Offshore wind projects will be encouraged.
- The policy will facilitate wind turbine generator-WTG manufacturers and RE developers to install prototype WTGs.
- Promote repowering of wind turbine generators i.e. old, undersized and inefficient wind turbines will be allowed to be re-energized and replaced with larger and more efficient turbines.
- There is no limit on capacity addition for repowering.
- Conversion of existing installed wind power plants or standalone wind or solar power plants under construction into hybrid projects will be facilitated under this policy.
- No banking charges will be applicable on solar power consumed by residential customers, while banking charges as determined by GERC from time to time will be applicable for other customers.
- RE parks that this policy promotes include solar parks, wind parks and hybrid parks.
- Floating solar projects can be developed on canals, rivers.
- Cross-subsidy surcharge and additional surcharge will not be applicable on captive power projects.
- Discoms will contract to procure power from RE projects selected through a competitive bidding process.
- Discoms can procure electricity from solar projects up to 4 MW at simple average tariff + Rs.0.20 per kWh tariff of the tariff contracted under competitive bidding in previous 6 months and wind projects up to 10 MW at simple average tariff.
- Power can be exported outside Gujarat through ISTS connected project.
- There will be a single web portal under Ease of Doing Business.
Prime Minister Shri Narendrabhai Modi has emphasized on climate change, continuous decline in renewable energy sources and pollution to create new dimensions of development by turning the challenges posed by pollution into COP-26 conference held at Glasgow.
For this purpose, he has further expressed his resolve to increase the use of green energy sources and achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2070.
Gujarat has become a leading state through policy-driven development in the fields of green energy like solar, wind, hybrid under the guidance of the Prime Minister. The state government under the leadership of Chief Minister Shri Bhupendra Patel has considered green growth as an important pillar in the five pillar based budget of development.
In this context, the new Gujarat Energy Policy-2023 will make the state self-sufficient in the energy sector and transform the state from self-sufficient Gujarat to self-sufficient India.
On the occasion when Chief Minister announced this policy, Chief Secretary Shri Rajkumar, Chief Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Shri K. Kailasanathan, Additional Chief Secretaries Mr. Pankaj Joshi, Mr. J. P. Gupta and Principal Secretaries Mrs. Mamata Verma, Mr. Sanjivkumar and senior secretaries and officials of the Energy Department were present.
For more information please see below link:
