Renewable energy forms one-eighth of country's power

In Karnataka, it forms a third of state's power; solar is key area of focus

Renewable energy forms around one-eighth of the cumulative installed capacity of power generation in India, while in Karnataka it is about one-third. The cumulative installed capacity of power in the country as of February last was close to 257,780 Mw. Of this, the renewable energy capacity comprises of 34,351 Mw, said Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Limited (KREDL) Project Engineer in Mysuru Dinesh Kumar.

In Karnataka, he said, the installed capacity for power was 14,802 Mw, comprising of renewal energy of 4,749 Mw which included wind energy 2,623 Mw, small hydro power 785 Mw, bio-mass 113 Mw, co-generation 114 Mw and solar grid 84 Mw.

Many states in India, including Karnataka, have already recognised and identified solar energy’s potential and others have lined up to meet their growing energy needs with clean and everlasting solar energy. In the near future, solar energy will have a huge role to play in meeting the country’s energy demand, he said inaugurating a 10 kW solar power plant here at the National Institute of Engineering (NIE).

“India has abundant solar energy which is enough to produce 5,000 trillion kilowatts of clean energy,” said Dinesh Kumar, adding the country was blessed with around 300 sunny days in a year. Karnataka is blessed with a reasonably good solar radiation which is sufficient to make solar power projects commercially viable in addition to offering a wide scope for off-grid solar applications.

Highlighting the technical details of the solar power plant, NIE’s Centre for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technologies (CREST) Head S Shamsundar said, annually NIE would generate about 60,000 units of power from solar energy.

With 30 kW power plant already installed at the NIE boys’ hostel, the total installed capacity increased to 40 kW and it would meet 10 per cent of its energy requirements as per the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy’s model solar city guidelines.

NIE Principal G L Shekar declared that NIE had fulfilled the National Board of Accreditation (NBA) norms of adopting green technologies to make the campus green.