The World Bank is in talks with the ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) to replicate the Rewa Ultra Mega Solar model, which saw record low-winning bids of Rs2.97 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) earlier this year. Speaking at Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) 4th Renewable Energy Summit on Friday, Amit Jain, Renwable Energy Specialist, World Bank said, “We are in talks with MNRE to replicate the Rewa model on a national scale. We are talking to the government of Odisha for the same.” In a bid to develop innovative solutions in solar technology, international financial institution World Bank will also invest USD 200 million with Solar Energy Corporation of India Ltd (SECI). “We have loaned USD 625 million to State Bank of India (SBI) for solar roof top over a period of five years. We have also given USD 100 million to IREDA for solar parks. The third one is with SECI for innovative solutions in solar. We are in the process of preparing the documents for that,” Jain said.
CII also released a report on ‘State Renewable Energy Policies: A Comparative Study’ with a special focus on the northern states of India, with the objective to disseminate policy initiatives taken by the various State Governments to attract investments in their respective states. According to the report, very few states have specific policies for small hydro, except Himachal Pradesh, jammu & Kashmir and Uttarkhand and for wind only Rajasthan has a specific policy. The report compares renewable energy policies of all states with that of other key states of India and gives an economic, demographic, infrastructure and industrial overview of the northern states.
“Most of the states provide single window clearances for all renewable energy sources. Only Punjab defines the period of 60 days in which all clearances will be received provided submission of complete application along with necessary enclosures, fees/charges and detailed project report,” the report notes on small hydro policies of states. While states like Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir levy water royalty, Haryana and Uttarakhand waive off water royalty for small hydro projects, it notes. On the wind sector, the report states that only Rajasthan in the northern region has a dedicated wind policy, while Haryana, Punjab and Uttarkhand find the mention of wind in their consolidated renewable energy policies. According to the report, most states have specific policies to promote solar energy which include both Solar PV as well as Solar Thermal technologies.
“For solar installations, the state governments facilitate in identifying feasible sites along with allotment of government land. In addition, most states have made it mandatory to install solar rooftop on government organisations, institutes or buildings etc.,” the report states. The report further add that most attractive incentives are provided in the solar space by all northern states when compared with wind and small hydro. For biomass, the report states, only Rajasthan has a dedicated biomass policy. “Other states like Punjab, Haryana and Uttarakhand have mention of biomass in their renewable energy policies and Uttar Pradesh has a draft biomass policy,” the report says. According to CII, Maharashtra and Karnataka have 1,221 megawatt (MW) and 872 MW of commissioned biomass power respectively, which is the highest in India, also do not have dedicated policies for biomass.
Source:EETIE
