By IANS
New Delhi : India is planning to have an exclusive special economic zone (SEZ) for manufacturing equipment that produces renewable energy – a move that is expected to give a boost to such energy.
“We have decided to set up a SEZ for the renewable energy sector. It will be constructed purely on a private-public-partnership basis,” Vilas Muttenwar, the minister for new and renewable energy, said Thursday.
“Five states – Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh – have shown interest and soon a final decision on the venue will be taken,” he said at a national renewable energy symposium here.
Muttenwar said the SEZ would be built over an area of 1,000 hectares on a build-operate-transfer mode.
The national seminar was conducted on the occasion of 25 years of the creation of a separate department for renewable energy in the ministry of power. The department became a ministry in the late 1990s.
“This would be an exclusive zone for manufacturing renewable energy producing equipments. The effort will help India becoming energy efficient. We have a capability to produce 200,000 MW of energy from renewable sources,” the minister added.
Currently, around 7.7 percent of India’s total energy generation comes from renewable sources like sunlight and wind. From renewable sources India produces 11,000 MW of power and the target is to add 14,000 MW of power during the 11th Five Year Plan.
“Many manufacturers, both domestic and international, have been urging us for a facility which would act as a hub for research and development, manufacture and export, considering our competitiveness in the sector.
“We are in an advanced stage of negotiations with several stockholders who have evinced keen interest in using India as a base for regional and global operations,” Muttenwar said.
He said the use of solar thermal systems, especially in urban, industrial and commercial applications, was being promoted through concessional loans and other measures.
“Solar collector area of around two million square meters has already been installed for various applications. We expect to add 10 million sq m during the next five years,” he said.