On agenda: Turning Bundelkhand into a solar power hub
LUCKNOW: Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh, comprising seven districts, will be a preferred beneficiary of the solar energy policy and investment efforts initiated by the state government, an official said.
In a first, the state government had formulated a dedicated UP Solar Energy Policy in December last.
Under the policy, Bundelkhand was chosen as the preferred region for solar power capacity because of the easy land availability for installation of solar power plants, said UP’s additional energy resources minister Brijesh Pathak.
“The government is gearing up to showcase the state, more specifically the Bundelkhand and Purvanchal regions, as solar energy space at the UP Investors’ Summit 2018,” said principal secretary, energy, Alok Kumar.
The summit is scheduled on February 21-22.
“We have already initiated the bidding process for 1,000 mega-watts solar power plants in the state, of which, over
60% we expect to generate in Bundelkhand. The total target is to generate 10,000 MW of solar power by 2022, of which the major chunk will again be Bundelkhand,” said Kumar.
WHY BUNDELKHAND?
Besides easy land availability for install- ing solar power plants, setting up of gridbased solar power plants in Bundelkhand would directly increase economic activities in the region and indirectly create employment opportunities to arrest exodus of youth and men out of the region for livelihood, said Pathak.
Renewable energy is one of the eleven focus areas of the summit.
“To attract investors we have made provision in the policy that once the plant comes, UP government will bear the cost of the transmission line to carry the generated power,” said Kumar.
The emphasis will also be to utilise the power produced within Bundelkhand itself. And the policy also says that the new industries being set up in Bundelkhand would also get power at concessional rates to encourage industrialisation in the region that have least industries compared to rest of the state.
The Solar Power Policy also allows investors the ‘open access’ wherein they will be free to sell power to the individual or institutional consumers. The previous rules and regulation restricted that they feed the energy generated only to the UP Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) grid.