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Policy on renewable energy sources on cards

L.N. Revathy

TIRUPUR, Dec. 24

A COMPREHENSIVE policy on renewable energy is in the offing. The draft, which now awaits the Cabinet nod, is expected to be passed soon, Mr K. Kannappan, Minister of State for Non-Conventional Energy Sources, said

Inaugurating a business meet on solar thermal devices for industrial application on Saturday, Mr Kannappan said that the draft policy statement envisaged 10 per cent of the capacity addition, projected at 100,000 MW for the period up to 2012, to be from renewable energy sources such as wind, biomass and small hydro power.

Uniform guidelines would be evolved for adoption by all States to facilitate correct pricing for electricity from renewable sources and for wheeling and banking of power, he added.

The policy, which is expected to pave the way for a much larger role for renewable energy sources, also proposes the setting up of a further three million family size biogas plants, 30 million improved wood stoves and deployment of five million solar lan terns and two million solar lighting systems.

The Minister pointed out that the renewable energy sources contributed about 2.8 per cent of the country's total power generating capacity of about 100,000 MW.

This includes over 1,200 MW of wind energy and 1,300 MW from mini-hydel plants of up to 25 MW capacity.

Dr P. Radhakrishna, Principal Scientific Officer, MNES, Chennai, said that the country would be able to save about 6,000 MW of power if the domestic water heating systems in use (estimated at one crore) could be replaced with solar water heating systems. He added that there was immense market potential for solar water heating systems.

While admitting that solar devices were priced high, Dr Radhakrishna said that there were only about 50 manufacturers who had secured BIS certification for their products, and that there was enormous potential for many others to enter this manufacturing line.

The Deputy General Manager of Syndicate Bank, Mr Ananda Rao, said that the bank had sanctioned and released 50 proposals for solar water heaters from domestic users and another 23 were in the pipeline.

He was hopeful of sanctioning at least 150 proposals for solar water heaters alone, before the end of the current fiscal.