India - Government to remove incentive cap for wind energy projects

The central government is planning to remove the incentive cap in wind energy which is currently restricted to projects up to 49mw. The government decision is to encourage more foreign investors to invest in various wind energy projects, according to a senior representative from the Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE).

MNRE is also planning to encourage more green buildings across the country, for which the department is even planning to give financial assistance for green building projects. Speaking to reporters at the sidelines of International Congress on Renewable Energy (ICORE) 2008 which was inaugurated today at Chennai, Deepak Gupta, secretary, MNRE said that the centre had adopted a generation-based incentive model on a pilot basis for wind energy projects up to 49mw.

Now the department is considering to remove the cap, which would bring more foreign investors into the sector. The proposal has already sent to the planning commission for approval, he said. Gupta also said the ministry is planning to increase the share of renewable energy to 10 per cent from the current 8 per cent of the total power produced in the country by adding an additional 7,000mw capacity by the year 2015.

The additional capacity will be mostly based on wind and hyrdo energy. He did not comment on the investment required for creating additional capacity. He added, the building sector poses a major environment challenge as 40 per cent of global emission is contributed by buildings. He said large construction projects are coming up across the country. Be it residential or commercial these buildings should be solar passive buildings with solar water heater system to replace electric heaters and save power.

Gupta said the ministry planned that there should be 60 such cities with green rating buildings under the Eleventh Plan. To support the upcoming projects, the ministry even considering to give financial assistance to the promoters, he added.

The two day seminar was organised by Solar Energy Society of India (SESI) in association with Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, IREDA, Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency and Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industries (MCCI).