UP eyes pvt investments for renewable energy segment

Uttar Pradesh today solicited private investments in the various renewable energy segments to partly fill the rising gap between power demand and supply.

Amid energy demand growing by almost 25 per cent annually, the peak-hour demand in UP has shot up to 11,000 Megawatt (Mw) this year compared to what was 9,000 Mw in 2010.

While the government is taking steps to augment power generation capacity manifolds in the next five years, it feels the renewable energy has the capacity to fulfil a chunk of the existing gap, which at times touches 3,000 Mw.

The per capita energy capacity in UP is still quite low at 370 units per year.

“The state government is active on areas like biomass, solar energy, hydropower and waste to energy plants. We would like to invite more investments in these areas and assure that the government would provide full support to the investors,” Navneet Sehgal, UP’s energy secretary said.

UP has started working towards prospective solutions and has set a target to procure 0.25 per cent of its energy requirements from solar and 3.75 per cent from other renewable energy sources.

Sehgal was addressing a conclave on ‘Renewable Energy — Fuelling the Future’ jointly organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Uttar Pradesh New and Renewable Energy Development Agency (UPNEDA).

The event deliberated topics such as solar thermal, solar PV, energy efficiency, biomass power as well as policy issues and stressed the need to explore alternative energy solutions.

“This sector is still at nascent stage and we are working towards spreading awareness in the remote areas towards renewable energy,” UPNEDA director Niteshwar Kumar said.

Starting October, UPNEDA would be organising monthly renewable energy fairs in different districts showcasing solar energy products in the rural pockets.

Ved Krishna, CII UP state council chairman said rising population, expanding economy and quest for improved quality of life has taken India’s demand-supply gap to 16.59 per cent.

Today, India is the fifth largest consumer of energy globally and it is projected that we would surpass Japan and Russia to become the world’s third biggest energy consumer by 2030. In this context, investments in renewable energy sector have been rising, but there is still a long way to go.