Renewable Energy in India - the Ministry's Scorecard
Via WorldChanging: Renewable Energy Access is carrying a roundup of renewable energy efforts in India based an update by the Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources.
Not too many surprises there but there are some useful figures for reference.
India has become the fourth largest wind power producing nation in the world with a capacity of 3500 MW, over 1600 MW of which has come in just the last two years. Other nations though are fast catching up. In the UK just one plant is expected to have a capacity of 10 GW.
Last year apart from 1000 MW added via wind power, 200 MW were added through small hydro and biomass power projects. Further 10% of the new power addition in the the country is to come from renewable energy sources.
Other highlights:
- 100,000 biogas plants were installed in 2004-05. In the same period biomass power projects with a total capacity of 140 MW were added.
- A 1 MW power plant from cow dung and a 3 MW poer plant from palm oil industry waste were commissioned as pilot projects to pave the way for many more.
- "A District Advisory Committee (DAC) on Renewable Energy headed by the District Collector is being constituted in every district to oversee the implementation of renewable energy programs in the district, integrate these with other rural development programs and address barriers to the accelerated switch over to renewable energy."
- There is a mention of the Village Energy Security Program for providing electricity to rural villages via biomass and other renewable energy sources.
