Low Carbon News in India in April 2015
Launch of India’s first air quality index: PM Modi says country’s contribution least in world pollution
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday launched the National Air Quality Index (AQI) for monitoring the quality of air in major urban centres across the country on a real-time basis and enhancing public awareness for taking mitigative action. The AQI has been at present launched for 10 cities — Delhi, Agra, Kanpur, Lucknow, Varanasi, Faridabad, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. It will have ‘one number, one colour and one description’ to inform the public about air quality in a simple and easily understandable format. The ministry said that each of these cities will have 6-7 continuous monitoring stations with AQI display boards.
Union cabinet to spend Rs 1 lakh crore in 5 years on smart cities, AMRUT
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday cleared plans to spend nearly Rs 1 lakh crore in five years on two programmes which are on top of its agenda: Narendra Modi’s pet project to build 100 smart cities and the urban development mission now renamed after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Under the decision made by the Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Modi, the Smart Cities project will get Rs 48,000 crore over five years.
PM Narendra Modi’s pet 100 Smart Cities project gets Cabinet’s approval
The Cabinet on Wednesday cleared Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s favoured 100 smart cities project in a bid to recast the urban landscape of the country to make them more livable and inclusive besides driving economic growth. It also cleared the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) for 500 cities. The Cabinet chaired by Modi approved central government spending of about rupees one lakh crore on urban development under two new urban missions over the next five years.http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/47094719.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
Electric cabs in Bangalore
Bengaluru-based Lithium Urban Technologies has launched an exclusive fleet of electric vehicles for city rides, while seeking to reduce carbon footprint considerably. What started off as a pick-up-and-drop service for corporates with 10 cabs will have 100 cars in two months. Project Lithium is currently limited to corporates. Company founder Sanjay Krishnan said: “Macroeconomics of the cab industry and clean fuel can go hand in hand. If I transport 1,000 people a day, then I clock 10 million km a year. This saves me 2.5 to 3 tonnes of carbon footprint per person per year. This cuts fuel costs by a huge margin.
The idea of starting a cab service came from few or no transportation options in Bengaluru. The venture had to restrict itself to corporate service because of lack of infrastructure to charge the vehicles. “Demand for transportation is high and concentrated when it comes to workspaces. Also, companies are well organized in helping us with charging ports for our vehicles,” he said. An investment of about Rs 30 crore has been made in Lithium Urban Technologies. However, fleet size remains an issue with this venture. Krishnan admits that it’ll continue to be a concern till public infrastructure is strengthened for the service to be extended to all citizens.
Developed world has to walk the talk on climate change: India
The developed world would have to “walk the talk” on climate change and provide a green climate fund to the developing world, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar has said, ahead of a crucial UN meet on the issue in Paris later this year.
Developed world would now have to walk the talk and will have to provide green climate fund to the developing world,” Javadekar said yesterday.
He said India is pro-actively engaging with the world to arrive at a fair and equitable climate agreement in Paris.
Javadekar, who is leading an Indian delegation to the US for a two-day meeting of Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate being hosted here on April 19-20, said India is taking action to mitigate the effects of climate change.
“Prime Minster (Narendra Modi) has put up an ambitious target of generating 175,000 megawatts of renewable energy. That is a huge contribution of India, because it will save 350 million tonnes of carbon emissions each year and would require 150 billion of investment. This is a huge contribution of India, essentially pre-2020,” he said.
“So the developed world would also have to put their best foot forward. This pre-2020 actions would pave the way for more actions from 2020 onwards,” he said.
Javadekar said India is a growing economy but climate change is a cumulative effect of hundreds of years of carbon emission by the developed world. “So historic responsibility is important,” he said.
Referring to the Kyoto Protocol, the world’s first climate agreement adopted in 1997, Javadekar said “the protocol is getting over. But the basic mandate and the principles of UNFCCC remains.”
‘India being watched for its contribution to climate change’
Contrary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent observation that India was under “no pressure” for climate commitments, a US envoy said on Monday that India is being “closely watched” for its contribution to climate change. US envoy Richard Verma said the country was being “closely watched” for its intended contribution towards the global response to climate change. In January, at a bilateral engagement with US President Barack Obama during his state visit to India, Modi had said that India was under “no pressure” to announce a peak year for cutting its own emission like the US and China.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/global-warming/India-being-watched-for-its-contribution-to-climate-change/articleshow/46991258.cms
Rooftop Solar Power Plants Scheme
So far, 351.60 MWp aggregate capacity of grid-interactive rooftop solar projects has been sanctioned and 47.64 MWp have been commissioned in various States. State Electricity Regulatory Commissions of twenty States have notified regulatory framework on net-metering/feed-in-tariff to encourage rooftop solar plants. This was stated by Sh. Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal & New and Renewable Energy in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today. The Minister further stated that the scheme has a provision of subsidy uptoRs. 24 per Wp for the general category States and Rs. 26 per Wp in North-Eastern States, Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep Islands which is about 30% of the benchmark cost of the system. The Ministry proposes to make the scheme incentive driven rather than subsidy driven. The Ministry has proposed to reduce the subsidy on rooftop solar power plants to 15% from the present level of 30% due to reduction in price of solar panels, large target set for rooftop solar power plant and limited availability of funds. The scheme encourages various business models including PPP mode. The subsidy as mentioned in part (b) is also applicable to these institutions. The major steps taken by the Government are as follows: (i) The ‘Grid Connected Rooftop and Small Solar Power Plants Programme’ encourages the installation of solar rooftop systems across the country including in buildings of State Government agencies. (ii) There are provisions of concessional import duty/excise duty exemption, accelerated depreciation and tax holiday for setting up of grid connected rooftop power plants.
http://pib.nic.in/newsite/pmreleases.aspx?mincode=28
Renewable Energy Generation Targets
The achievement of targets was 76.68%, 84.15% and 108% for generation of renewable energy during the last 3 years i.e. 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15 respectively. This was stated by Sh. Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal & New and Renewable Energy in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today. The Minister further stated that the short-falls during 2012-13 and 2013-14 were under primarily Wind Power and Small Hydro Power Programme due to discontinuation of Accelerated Depreciation (AD) benefit and generation based incentive (GBI) under the Wind Power Sector and delay in obtaining forest area clearances and court cases in some of the states under Small Hydro Sector. With the restoration of AD benefit, generation based Incentives, etc. have resulted in overachievement of target during 2014-15. The Minister further stated that presently there is a lack of evacuation infrastructure in renewable energy resource rich States. A Green Energy Corridor Project for evacuation of renewable energy from generation points to the load Centers by creating intra-state and inter-state transmission infrastructure is under implementation for the capacity addition by March 2017. The intra-state transmission component of the project is being implemented by the respective states and the Power Grid Corporation of India is implementing inter-state transmission component, the Minister added.
http://pib.nic.in/newsite/pmreleases.aspx?mincode=28
Schemes for Installing Large Solar Power Plants
Government is considering to bring long term policies and scheme for installing solar power plants with 1 lakh MW capacity in the country. It has announced revision of the target of renewable energy capacity of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy to 1,75,000 MW by 2022. This was stated by Sh. Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal & New and Renewable Energy in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today. The revised target of 1,75,000 MW comprises of capacity addition of 1,00,000 MW Solar, 60,000 MW Wind, 10,000 MW Biomass and 5,000 MW Small Hydro Power. http://pib.nic.in/newsite/pmreleases.aspx?mincode=28
Green tribunal’s thumbs up for waste-to-energy projects
In what could be seen as a setback to those opposing burning of municipal solid wastes (MSW), the National Green Tribunal (NGT), New Delhi, has permitted the States, including Karnataka, to use incinerator technology for producing Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF), commonly known as waste-to-energy.
However, the Tribunal said no waste could be directly put into the incinerators or for power generation, except the specifically permitted. Only those wastes that are found unrecyclable after segregation should be put into the incinerators.
Also, the tribunal emphasised that it was “not putting any absolute restriction on RDF being used as power generation fuel, but first effort should be made for composting of wet waste”. The States are free to use RDF for generating fuel with due care and caution by framing necessary guidelines.
Meanwhile, the Central Pollution Control Board and the Ministry of Environment and Forests were directed to prescribe specific guidelines for emissions from incinerators.
The directions were issued on a case between city-based MSW expert Almitra H. Patel vs. Union of India that was referred to the NGT by the Supreme Court, which since 1996 had issued several directions on management of MSW across the country. Based on this case, the Centre had formulated the MSW (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000. The NGT also directed dividing the State into clusters for locating sufficient number of incinerator plants. Authorities were also asked to provide maximum space for plants to have large storage and processing area for wastes; ensure green belt of higher density around plants, and adopt new technologies.
Green energy potential remains untapped: Ministry
India has 900 GW of commercially exploitable sources of renewable energy if 3 per cent of the country’s wasteland is made available, according to the Ministry for New and Renewable Energy. The renewable sources of energy include wind and solar power, biomass and waste-to-energy apart from small hydro power plants.
The solar power potential of the country remains largely untapped with only 3 GW of installed power compared with 750 GW of potential. Wind power, on the other side, has been developed at a much faster pace with an installed capacity of 22.5 GW as on December 31, 2014 compared with a total potential of 100 GW.
A State-wise list of renewable energy potential has been drawn up by the National Institute of Wind Energy, National Institute of Solar Energy, Indian Institute of Science for and the Alternate Hydro Energy Centre.
The Ministry’s annual report for 2014-15 pegs the highest renewable energy potential in Rajasthan at 148 GW followed by Jammu and Kashmir with 118 GW. Both the States also have the highest amount of solar energy potential.
While Rajasthan has embraced solar power and has the second highest installed capacity at 851 MW, J&K’s solar power potential remains completely untapped.
However, despite the potential, only around 34 GW of renewable generation capacity is installed in the country, largely driven by wind power plants.
Though the government has a target of having 175 GW of renewable energy generation by 2020, capacity addition in 2014-15 has been slow.
Jaipur Municipal Corporation plans waste-to-energy plant
If all goes well according to the plan, the city will not only get rid of its garbage menace but also it will be able to utilize the garbage in generating power. The Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) is planning to set up small-scale waste-to-energy plant to generate electricity. In this regard a Bangalore private firm has been appointed which will submit the project report in four months. The JMC plans to generate nearly 6MW in a day from 650 tonnes of waste. Deputy mayor, Manoj Bhardawaj, said, “At present, waste generated in JMC areas is close to 1,250 tonne. Out of which, 350 tonne is used to produce refuse derived fuel that is sold to cement factories and 250 tonne is used to produce compost manure. We are planning to generate electricity from remaining 650 tonne garbage.”