Cement, Energy and Environment

departments, state governments, educational institutions and district collectors on August 1 O, 2015. According to estimates of rooftop solar power potential drawn up by the MNRE, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution leads with 2,314 MW, followed by the railways at 1,369 MW. Other ministries with potential include Petroleum and Natural Gas (1 ,009 MW), Civil Aviation (620 MW) Human Resource Development (497 MW), Chemicals & Fertilizers (401 MW) and Defense (281 ). As many as 13 states have come out with policies supporting solar rooftops. Government initiatives apart, solar power has found many voluntary takers, including religious institutions. The Radha Soami Satsang at Beas in Amritsar houses possibly the largest rooftop solar set up in the world at 7.5 MW. A unique effort of the Centre is the push for "canal-top "solar plants. The idea is to gainfully employ the unutilised area above canals and also the vacant government land along the waterways. A total capacity of 100 MW is planned under this scheme. So far, 12 canal top solar projects of almost 50 MW total have so far been sanctioned with Punjab alone planning them a nine locations in Amritsar, Ludhiana Bhatinda, Babbanpur and Patiala. The Solar Energy Corporation of India is is working on a 600 MW solar power plant and plans to invest in upcoming solar parks. There are almost 300 companies in the fray for setting up solar projects . These include global companies, which may help meet 22% of the target, officials said. Other steps being taken to help India go solar in a big way are incentives such as tax free-bonds and bank lending of as much as Rs.15 crore for projects. The Department of Financial Services has advised publ ic sector banks to provide funds for rooftop solar systems as home loan home improvement loans. "While all of these announcements have raised market sentiments, the Indian solar industry is looking for a streamlined auction process at regular intervals to better plan investments and manufacturing capacity, "Raj Prabhu, CEO and cofounder of Mercom Capital Group, said in comments to a report this week. Courtesy: The Economic Times, 22.08.2015 Environment UNDER NEW NORMS, 36 INDUSTRIES MAY NOT NEED ENVIRONMENTAL CLEARANCE The government is set to hack away a great deal of red tape with a new classification of industries that uses colour codes to denote environmental impact, a move that means 36 industries may need no green clearance at all. working on a one-of-its-kind hybrid plant to ensure power supply through the year to the remote settle ment of Kaza in Himachal Pradesh's Spiti Valley. A 2.5 MW solar power plant, clubbed with wind power dur ing the monsoons and a large battery storage to boot, is in the works and a tender for this integrated project is expected to be out next month, officials said. The prospects of solar energy have attracted even Coal India Ltd, the producer of the "dirty fuel "that fires up 60% of India's power generation capacity. CIL India's GOP growth slowed down to 7% during the April-June quarter (Reuters Photo)