MNRE chalks out renewable energy plan

New Delhi: In order to give impetus to power generation through renewable sources, the ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) is in the process of chalking out a detailed roadmap.

The ministry would have to submit a comprehensive Plan of Action by end of this month, which was decided in the 10th meeting of Energy Coordination Committee chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, official sources said.

Once the ministry would file a detailed plan, a Committee of Secretaries (CoS) would discuss the plan and submit it to Prime Minister's Office.

The plan would include state specific issues, thrust areas, strategies to address these and a national roadmap to increase the percentage power of renewable energy.

The thrust areas and issues would also include up-scaling of power generation based initiative in renewables with specific focus on solar and concerns of various stakeholders like utilities.

In the present scenario, the contribution of renewable energy sources in country's entire power generation is 7.7 per cent.

Renewable energy sources include small hydro project, biomas gasfier, biomass power and urban and industrial water power and wind energy.

However, major hydro power projects contribute 24.7 per cent. Therefore, a cumulative contribution by renewable energy sources is about 32.4 per cent whereas thermal power generates 64.6 per cent to country's total capacity.