Monday, December 31, 2007

Rajasthan set on road to green energy

If things move in the right direction, Rajasthan is likely to attract an investment of Rs 8,000 crore in the renewable energy sector. Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corporation (RREC) CMD Rajeev Swaroop said the state government has signed MoUs with 14 power companies to set up power plants in the fields of wind energy, biomass and solar energy.

There would be five wind energy projects in Jaisalmer, Barmer and Jodhpur with a generation capacity of 1,600 MW while eight biomass projects would be set up in Sirohi, Baran, Tonk, Alwar, Sawai Madhopur, Kota, Nagaur, Hanumangarh and Jalore districts, said sources.

Besides, optical media storage device maker Moser Baer (India) would invest around Rs 20-100 crore to set up a solar power project in Jodhpur with an estimated generation capacity of 1-5 MW.

Currently, Rajasthan has an installed capacity of 490 MW in wind energy and 46.3 MW in biomass. With the installation of the proposed projects, the installation capacity would increase to 2,150 MW in renewable energy sources.

“Suzlon Gujarat Wind Park, with a proposed investment of Rs 4,910 crore, leads the table followed by Enercon (India) and Wish Wind Infrastructure, with investments of Rs 1,072 crore and Rs 888 crore, respectively,” sources said.

These initiatives in wind electricity is the result of the Wind Power Programme, which was started in the Sixth Plan in 1983-84. It aims at survey and assessment of wind resources, setting up demonstration projects and provisions of incentives to make wind electricity competitive.

Wind energy has been the world’s fastest growing renewable energy source growing at a rate of 28% in the last decade and has emerged as an option for grid quality power generation.

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