TS will be solar power hot spot: Ajay Mishra

Hyderabad, Feb 8 (INN): Special Chief Secretary (Energy) Ajay Mishra said that the Telangana State was set to become one of the hot spots for solar energy development in the country, led by State's target of power generation capacity of 5,000 MW by 2019-20 with solar photovoltaic and coal energy.

He was addressing a conference "Solar Invest - 2017" organised by the industry bodies ASSOCHAM and FTAPCCI here on Wednesday.

Ajay Mishra said that the state has a vast solar potential with average insulation (amount of solar radiation reaching the earth surface) of nearly 5.5 kWh/m2 for 300 sunshine days. By the end of December 2016, Telangana had installed a total solar capacity of 1070 MW, with 918 MW of utility scale solar projects and 27 MW of rooftop solar projects. Projects with generation capacity of 2000 MW are in pipeline with number of solar power developers engaged in building projects.

Under Telangana Solar Power Policy 2015, which will be valid for the next five years, Telangana state government aims at creating an enabling environment for prospective solar power developers to harness substantial quantum of solar power in optimum manner. The policy provides various incentives to the developers which include a single window and speedy clearance to all solar projects, exemption from the Land Ceiling Act, deemed conversion to non-agricultural land status for the land acquired for the project, 100% refund on Value Added Tax (VAT) etc.,

Ajay Mishra mentioned that easing on various other approval processes from local revenue departments simple and hassle free as part of ease of doing business in Telangana. He also mentioned about scaling up of Roof top projects which will be financially viable. Telangana State may also look at making Telangana State an Industrial hub for manufacturing of solar equipments with an enabling policy of supply of solar power making it an Integrated Solar Park.

Telangana State Electricity Regulartory Commission chairman Ismail Ali Khan explained the need for right mix of conventional and renewable energy sources. This is required not only for good stability but also for maintaining health of DISCOMs.

Solar tariff has attend grid parity with tariff lower than Rs. 5/-, state may look at feed in tariff of average purchase cost with fixed escalation of 3-4%. This will attract lot of investment into state and thereby achieve social transformation of the state, Ismail Ali Khan said.

FTAPCCI President Ravindra Modi said that the India offers unlimited growth potential for the solar power industry as the country enjoys about 300 clear, sunny days in a year. Further, the theoretically calculated solar energy incidence on its land area alone is about 5000 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh) per year. This is why the National Solar Mission has targeted the development of 100 GW solar capacity by 2022, which will require US$ 100 billion in investments. To achieve this, a 100 percent foreign direct investment (FDI) is permitted under the automatic route for renewable energy generation and distribution projects subject to provisions of The Electricity Act, 2003.

India, with its initiates in the field of renewable energy is trying hard to secure the future of its coming generation to fulfill its energy needs. With the support of Government and other private and public sector enterprises/companies, Solar Industry is letting itself grow in a very big manner. By 2022, India aims to power 60 million homes by the sun. It is part of the government's goal to produce 40 percent of its power from non-fossil fuels by 2030 Shri Modi said.