Jaipur, Sep 2 (IANS): Rajasthan is home to most of the conventional and non-conventional sources of energy generation. The government of India has released its roadmap to achieve 175 GW capacity in renewable energy by 2022, which includes 100 GW of solar power and 60 GW of wind power.
The Union government is preparing a 'rent a roof' policy for supporting its target of generating 40 gigawatts (GW) of power through solar rooftop projects by 2022. Coal-based power generation capacity in India, which currently stands at 229.40 GW, is expected to reach 330-441 GW by 2040. In 2018-19, the total imports in the conventional power sector were around Rs 75,000 crore and $2.9 billion in the renewable energy segment.
All this offers tremendous opportunity for stimulating domestic manufacturing and import substitution in the energy sector, said N.K. Jain, Chairman, FICCI Rajasthan Sub-Committee on MSMEs, at a webinar attended by around 200 participants.
There are 7 to 8 states in India that are suitable for generation of wind energy but Rajasthan has an advantage that alternative economic usage of the land having wind potential is limited and therefore it becomes easy to set up wind power plants said, Vinod Bishnoi, Vice President and Project Head, India Business, Suzlon Energy Ltd.
Rajasthan has come up with a very good policy in 2019 which has a stated objective to promote wind, hybrid and hybrid with storage energy. Captive consumption and third-party sale should be encouraged as it will provide cheap electricity to the industries helping them to become competitive as well as boost the RE sector, he added. Power Grid Corporation is making 3-4 substations which will take care of purchase and transmission of power.
"Solar sector offers tremendous opportunity for domestic manufacturing with varied usage across sectors especially for MSMEs and we should take benefit of this gift of nature to Rajasthan", said Sunil Bansal, General Secretary, Rajasthan Solar Association. He added that the coming decade gives the opportunity to convert Rajasthan into a manufacturing hub for solar equipment not only for solar energy projects but many other items such as solar lamps, pumps, dryers, mosquito traps, torches, fans, deep fridges, ventilators, lanterns, traffic lights, solar AC, etc. He also suggested for reserving certain items for purchase from the MSME sector.
"The Investment Board and One-Stop Shop mechanism of 14 departments would greatly facilitate and boost investors willing to invest in the state", said Anandi Lal Vaishnav, Additional Commissioner, Bureau of Investment Promotion, GoR. He added that RIPS 2019 has given fairly good benefits to Renewable Energy manufacturing sector under the policy and in the customised package also as it is under the thrust sector.
"The industrial infrastructure, connectivity and generation potential in Rajasthan provides immense opportunity for manufacturing and import substitution in the solar sector", says Manish Gupta, Director, Insolation Energy. There are around 12 equipment/elements used in a solar power project which can be manufactured locally out of which around 10 elements can be manufactured by MSMEs with limited capital investment, he added.
"Enabling initiatives by the Government of India underscore its focus on domestic manufacturing and opening new opportunities. States need to promote R&D and technological advancements as well as develop advanced skill sets in manufacturing and focus on export competitiveness to leverage this opportunity," said Ankit Piplani, VP, E&Y.