The Hindu       03.05.2011

Policy to promote solar power projects soon

Solar energy initiatives may get a big boost in the State with the Government proposing to introduce a solar policy, a step described to go a long way in promoting solar power generation.

With Karnataka having potential to harness solar energy to meet its energy requirement, Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Limited (KREDL) has drafted the solar policy to encourage solar power projects and invited suggestions/objections to the draft policy it has posted on its website.

KREDL will be the nodal agency for facilitating and implementing the solar policy.

According to KREDL, Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) has issued regulations to ensure that 0.25 per cent of the power consumed was from solar resources. Moreover, the Union Government has decided that 0.25 per cent of energy consumption should be from solar resources, which would go up to 3 per cent by 2022.

Also, under the Karnataka Renewable Energy Policy, the State has been given a target of achieving 126 MW of solar power (including the power that the State is expected to get under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission-JNNSM) by 2013-2014, according to the draft policy.

Therefore, the Government has proposed to have a solar policy which, according to KREDL, will be in force for five years from 2011-12 to 2015-2016. The Government, according to the draft policy, intends to bring the policy into effect on June 1, 2011. The policy will remain in force till March 31, 2016.

KREDL has invited suggestions and objections to the draft policy and they, if any, can be sent to the managing director, KREDL, 39, Shantigruha, Bharat Scouts and Guides Premises, Palace Road, Bangalore, or the deputy secretary, Energy Department, 2nd Floor, Vikasa Soudha, Bangalore, before May 16. A committee headed by the additional chief secretary/secretary, Energy Department, shall approve the solar energy projects under the policy.

The deputy secretary, Energy Department, will be the member convener while the principal secretary/secretary, Revenue Department; the principal secretary/secretary, Water Resources Department; the principal secretary/secretary, Forest, Ecology and Environment Department; the managing director, KREDL; the chief conservator of forests (forest conservation), Karnataka; the director (technical), KPCL; the director (transmission), KPTCL, shall be the members of the committee.

As per the draft policy, the State has proposed to generate 200 MW of solar power by 2015-16 for the procurement by the electricity supply companies. This will be in addition to the allotment received under JNNSM. Under the policy, the minimum capacity of single solar power generating unit shall be 5 MW each and the maximum unit shall be 10 MW (both in respect of solar photo voltaic and solar thermal).

The Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has asked the States to persuade the people and the local bodies to adopt renewable energy so that dependence on conventional energy is reduced. They have been told to use solar water-heating systems, solar home-lighting systems, solar streetlight control systems, power projects based on urban waste and bio-mass gasification, among others, to save energy.

The Ministry has also proposed an ambitious programme, “Development of Solar Cities”, to promote the use of renewable energy in urban areas by providing support to urban local bodies for the preparation and implementation of a roadmap to develop “solar cities”. Nearly 60 cities in the country have been identified to be made solar cities by 2012. Mysore and Hubli-Dharwad are the two cities in the State.