Farm land not required for solar projects: Power Minister

Dispelling worries over acquisition of farmers' land for the government's ambitious solar mission, Power Minister Piyush Goyal today said no agriculture land will be acquired for clean energy projects.
The minister's comments assume significance against the backdrop of government's plan to add solar power generation capacity of 100 GW by 2022 under the National Solar Mission. Earlier, It had set a target of adding 20GW of capacity from renewable sources.
"For me today there is nothing more important than be able to give 24X7 power every citizen of this country and make India diesel genset free country," Goyal said at an event organised by the Vision India Foundation.

He said, "I don't need any farmers' land for the solar energy project. We only want waste, baron land and land on lease for the purpose. There is no need to worry at all that farmers' land will be used for solar projects. I don't think that we need to acquire land."
As per estimates, about 5-7 acres of land is required for installing 1 MW solar plant.
On the issue of anti-dumping duty on solar equipment, he said, "If anti-dumping was imposed the solar power would have become even more expensive... Mood of the nation is not so good.. Elections are won and lost on the cost of power..So we cannot allow the cost of power to go beyond a decent level."

The government in September last year decided not to impose anti-dumping duty on solar cells from countries like the US and China even as the commerce ministry had recommended a restrictive duty in the range of USD 0.11-0.81 per watt.

Elaborating further he said, "Renewable energy is imperative for us... We have to balance all interests so we protect the interest of domestic manufacturers and ensure that they get level playing field. I am in the dialogue with the petitioners in the WTO to resolute this."
The WTO's dispute settlement panel is examining a complaint by the US against India's domestic content requirements under its solar power programme.

The US had alleged that India's programme appears to discriminate against US solar equipment by requiring solar energy producers to use locally manufactured cells and by offering subsidies to those developers who use domestic equipment.
The minister said that the solar power generation capacity would be increased from present 3GW to 100GW under national solar mission which will give boost to 'Make in India' and 'Digital India' initiative.