Govt to push RE agenda in aggressive way, key policies in offing: MNRE Joint Secretary

• The PLI scheme has made many solar manufacturers optimistic about the scheme, said the MNRE Joint Secretary
• To provide green energy to all the consumer segments, government is working on open access rule, said the top official

New Delhi: While there has been a lack in a proper awareness campaign around renewable energy (RE), the government will be pushing this agenda of RE in a much aggressive way and in the next two months, something more concrete (in terms of policies and measure) will be finalised, said Amitesh Sinha, Joint Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), on Wednesday. Addressing a webinar on Reducing Costs and Going Green through Solar Energy: Benefits and Opportunities for Industrial and Commercial Consumers organised by FICCI, Sinha said that the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative has taken a leap with the series of measures being taken to aid Indian manufacturers and industry. 

"The PLI scheme has made many solar manufacturers optimistic about the scheme. We (the government) are looking at providing good quality modules in the future. Latest technologies and competitive prices will soon be available in India," said Sinha.

Guidelines on open access, green tariff soon: MNRE Joint Secretary

Further, Sinha said that the open access rules will help facilitate all consumers. "To provide green energy to all the consumer segments, government is working on open access rule. It will be subject to availability of transmission capability system. If capacity is available, open access will be given. There will be no limit on load limit on captive trans units," he said.

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The Joint Secretary also elaborated on the concept of green tariff for firms in RE sector. "We will soon see guidelines from the Power Ministry on Green Energy. These are not yet finalised, but these are the roadmap that the government is currently working on," he added.

'Post COVID, focus has shifted to cost-effective measures'

Representing the consumer segment, Neel Kant Saxena, Director of Supply Chain, and Neeraj Aggarwal, Head of Manufacturing, HT Media Ltd, said that with COVID affecting most businesses, the focus has shifted to cost-effective measures in every sphere. "We have been looking at various options that could help reduce our operational costs. We have seen the evolution of solar in the last two decades. The solar tariff is more attractive at 30 percent lower than the traditional power tariffs, and hence makes sense for all operating industries to re-look at their energy consumptions," said Saxena. He further added that solar is a great proposition to meet the corporate agenda of going green, and is technically feasible to implement in existing factories.

"The total in-house solar power generation capacity is 1520 kVA (19,52,350 kWh). The company will be able to reduce its carbon dioxide emission by 2,217 tonne/ annum.  This is equal to 15,504 barrels of crude oil production or 2,614 urban trees planted," said Aggarwal.

'Rooftop solar power should be everybody's right'

Vijay Gaur, Head of Plant Engineering, IFB Industries Ltd, said that change in mindset across the organisation is important for adoption of solar energy. "We became the first company in Goa with MW solar installation. It is important to keep yourself updated on technology and policy changes as a lot of effort is required to educate the people in the industry about solar. The benefit of installing solar installing a 1500 kWp is equivalent to planting 88,790 mature trees. For us, it also helped in the reduction of 1097.8 tonnes of carbon dioxide," he added.

Bhushan Gupta, Deputy General Manager, CNH Industrial said, "Our solar project is expected to produce 74,078, 506 units of electricity over its life, which is equal and 2,86,250 metric tonnes reduction in carbon dioxide."

Sachin Sinha, Chief Financial Officer, India Expo Mart and Centre Solar spoke about the exhibition-based service industry. "Solar energy is a revolution and continuous business, and technology innovation are making it an attractive proposition," he said.

Putting forth the developers' perspective on aiding commercial and industrial segments in going solar, Sanjeev Aggarwal, Managing Director and CEO, Amplus Solar said that rooftop solar power should be everybody's right.

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