Greentech Lead India: The Tamil Nadu government is
planning to encourage energy efficient systems using solar and other forms of
energy.
The State government’s proposals include provision of
subsidized solar pumps, generation based incentive scheme for domestic solar
roof tops, besides presenting awards to those who use solar power lights
effectively.
The State government has proposed to provide generation based incentive for
domestic solar roof-tops for a total maximum capacity of 50 MW during the
current fiscal.
Besides this, the government may provide subsidized solar
pumps (86 percent subsidy– 56 percent from Ministry of Agriculture and 30
percent from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy) on a pilot basis to
select applicants for agriculture service connections.
The Government may recognize usage of solar roof-tops by
presenting the Chief Minister’s Awards which would be given annually to
different categories of consumers generating maximum solar energy.
A 60kW roof-top solar power plant at the Electricity Board office headquarters
here would also be set up for promoting solar energy.
According to energy department’s policy note, the government has proposed to
distribute one crore CFL lamps at a subsidized cost of Rs 15 per bulb to
achieve a savings of around 250MW at a cost of Rs 85 crore.
Energy efficient agricultural pump-sets (having a minimum three star label)
would be made mandatory for new connections.
The Government is planning to set up a demonstration project by erecting
star-rated energy efficient pump sets in a select feeder on pilot basis. Perform,
Achieve and Trade (PAT) mechanism would be followed to target energy savings of
upto Rs 200 crore.
On the Centre’s proposal to achieve 22 GW of solar capacity by 2022 under the
Jawaharlal Nehru Solar Mission, the policy note said 22 MW is scheduled to be
commissioned in Tamil Nadu in the first phase. The entire capacity addition
would be done using solar PV technology.
For this year, under Chief Minister’s Solar powered Green Houses Scheme, the
government would add 60,000 solar energy powered green houses at a cost of Rs
180 crore. This scheme was the first such in India with a grid back-up.
On the proposal to energise solar energy powered street lights in 2012-13, the
policy note said 20,000 more street lights will be solar powered at a cost of Rs
50 crore.
According to the Vision Tamil Nadu 2023 document released by Chief Minister
Jayalalithaa in March, the government expects Rs 4.50 lakh crore investments to
be made in the power sector. The major share of the investments amounting to Rs
2.80 lakh crore will be utilized to augment power generation capacity in the
State.
The present installed capacity of the State is 10,364.5 MW. The average
availability of power is 8,500 MW. Demand ranges from 11,500 MW-12,500 MW,
leaving a shortage of 3,000 MW to 4000 MW.
As part of tapping other energy sources, the State government has planned to
increase capacity of wind power to 5000 MW at a rate of 1000 MW per year in the
next five years, according to a
PTI report.