April 02, 2002
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INDIA PLANS ADDITION OF ABOUT 6,000 MW TO WIND POWER CAPACITY OVER NEXT DECADE: KANNAPPAN
India plans to add about 6,000 MW to its wind power capacity over the next decade. With the present level of wind power installed capacity of over 1,500 MW, India is among the top five countries in wind power capacity in the world. The Indian Wind Energy Programme is private sector driven with policy incentives from the Government and ample business opportunities for setting up joint ventures and collaboration projects exist. Delivering the opening address in Paris today at the Global Wind Power Conference 2002, the Minister of State for Non-Conventional Energy Sources (Independent Charge) Shri M.Kannappan outlined the achievements of the country’s renewable energy programme and also mentioned India’s preparedness for undertaking projects under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol. He highlighted the scope and potential for CDM projects in the renewable energy area and invited the European countries to consider India a suitable destination for the CDM projects.
India is implementing one of the world’s largest renewable energy programmes. Already over 3,400 MW installed capacity is based on renewable energy sources and India has plans for capacity addition of 10,000 MW from renewables by the year 2012. There are a variety of policy and support incentives such as soft loans, concessional rates of customs duty, exemption from excise duty and sales tax and accelerated depreciation which are available to investors in the field of renewable energy, Shri Kannappan said.
In India, the importance of increasing use of renewable energy sources in the transition to a sustainable energy base was recognised in the mid 1970’s. India is possibly the only country in the world to have a separate Ministry for Non-Conventional Energy Sources. During the past quarter century, a significant thrust has been given to the development, trial and induction of a wide variety of renewable energy technologies for use in different sectors, the Minister added. The activities cover all major renewable energy sources such as biogas, biomass, solar energy, wind energy, small hydro power and other emerging technologies. In each of these areas, there are programmes of resources assessment, R&D, technology development and demonstration. Several renewable energy systems and products are now commercially available and are also economically viable in comparison to fossil fuels, Shri Kannappan told delegates at the Conference.
As a result of all these support measures, India ranks first in biomass gasification. In the field of solar photovoltaic, India ranks fifth and in biogas application India ranks second in the world.