Cement Energy and Environment

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) wanted commercial banks to stop giving loans for installing solar home lighting system under the subsidy scheme since it is burdened with pending subsidy claims. This bank loan cum capital subsidy scheme was part of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM). "It's a temporary withdrawal till the clearing of the pending subsidy," a senior official with the ministry told ET. ""The finance department has not released the fund," he said. ET has learnt that the size of pending claims is Rs 130 crore, which is just about 5% of the annual plan of Rs 2,500 crore to promote renewable energy. "The Ministry is in the process to clear dues for the loan already extended by the banks ," the ministry said in a note to National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development and advised it to instruct banks to stop lending till further notice. "JNNSM Phase aims to give a major thrust to off-grid solar power in areas where grid has not reached and many parts of the country where electricity supply situation is very poor. If this news is true, it would be negating this objective," said Debasish Mishra, senior director with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India Pvt. ltd. Banks provide Rs 25,000 to Rs 1 lakh loan for installing solar photovoltaic lighting systems in both urban and rural areas and the borrowers get back 30-40% of it as capital subsidy. But as the government fails to foot the subsidy bill, the borrowers are forced to pay interest for the entire project cost. The ministry may review its decision again in June after examining its financial position. India Ratings and Research had said in a report in January that capacity additions in the renewable energy sector in FY16 was expected to be driven by the solar segment given the policy thrust towards setting up solar installations. It had expected the share of solar capacity in the renewable energy sector to increase to 11% in FY16. "Government is determined to achieve target 175 MW of renewable energy capacity by 2022. Clean energy cess collected from thermal coal users should be effectively used to promote renewable energy," Deloitte's Mishra said. Courtesy: ET Bureau, 18 March 2015(/nternet) NEW & RENEWABLE EtJERGY A~"'HIEVEMENTS IN INDIA Cumulative Deployment of Various Renewable Energy Systems/Devices in India Program/Scheme-wise Physical Progress in 2014-15 (During the month of December) FY 2014-15 Cumulative Sector --,--------- Achievements :J"arget Achievement (as on 31 _12 _2014 ) I. GRID-INTERACTIVE POWER (CAPACITIES IN MW) Wind Power 2,000.00 1,333.20 22,465.03 Small Hydro Power 250.00 187.15 3,990.83 Biomass Power & Gasification 100.00 0.00 1,365.20 Bagasse Cogeneration 300.00 152.00 2,800.35 Waste to Power 20.00 1.00 107.58 Solar Power 1'100.00 430.67 3,062.68 Total 3,770.00' 2,104.02 3,3791 .67 II. OFF-GRID/CAPTIVE POWER (CAPACITIES IN MWEQ) Waste to Energy 10.00 8.54 141.27 Biomass (non-bagasse) Cogeneration 80.00 34.32 561 .64 Biomass Gasifiers -Rural 0.80 0.00 17.48 -Industrial 8.00 2.20 149.40 Aero-Generators/Hybrid Systems 0.50 0.13 2.38 SPV Systems 60.00 52.77 227.12 Water Mills/Micro Hydel 4.00 0.00 13.21 Biogas-based Energy System 0.00 0.30 4.07 Total 163.30 98.26 1,116.57 Ill. OTHER RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS Family Biogas Plants (numbers in lakh) Solar Water Heating - Coil. Area (million rn-) Source: MNRE ( mnre.gov.in) 1.10 0.50 0.12 0.48 47.53 8.63 32