Clean energy fund may garner Rs 67,000 cr in 10 years

The National Clean Energy Fund, which will come about through a Rs 50 a tonne cess on coal used, it is estimated, will garner more than Rs 67,000 crore over the next 10 years. The players in the renewable energy sector want the fund to be used only for developing the sector and not diverted for other purposes.The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, which will coordinate the fund, has invited expressions of interest from consulting firms to help it come up with options, including financing mechanisms, to use the corpus.

At a two-day seminar on Green Power, which began on Wednesday, Mr Ramesh Kymal, Chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry – Renewable Energy Council and Managing Director, Gamesa Wind Turbines Pvt Ltd, suggested that the fund could be used to double the money given under the Generation-Based Incentive scheme for wind power sector to Re 1 a kWh. The incentive is given over and above the tariff paid to wind energy developers for the electricity they generate.

Bonanza for the sector

Mr G.M. Pillai, Director-General, World Institute of Sustainable Energy, termed the clean energy fund as a bonanza for the renewable energy sector and said there were several ways in which the corpus could be spent.While developing a policy framework for the using the fund, he said a mix of policy options and instruments could be considered. For instance, the fund could be used to reimburse at least half the investment in evacuation infrastructure by renewable energy developers or it could be used to develop roads in rural areas.

The fund, Mr Pillai said, could be used for equity investment in innovations and demonstration renewable energy projects or in critical renewable energy infrastructure areas such as silicon manufacturing, as was being done in China.