GREEN IS THE CODE OF CONDUCT
The Union Budget has made major push towards a sustainable future, with more incentives for solar components manufacturing, infra status for storage systems and floating of green bonds
In order to promote clean energy, the Budget has proposed an additional allocation of Rs 19,500 crore in the production linked incentive (PLI) scheme for solar sector, infrastructure status to energy storage systems and introduction of green bonds.
In November 2021, the government had decided to increase the funding under the PLI scheme for the domestic solar cells and module manufacturing by five-fold to Rs 24,000 crore from the initial funding of Rs 4,500 crore. The Budget has now added Rs 19,500 crore to fulfil this and achieve the ambitious goal of 280 GW of installed solar capacity by 2030.
The country plans to more than quadruple its renewable power capacity to 450 gigawatts by 2030.
In November, power and new & renewable energy minister R. K. Singh had said that the bids for the Rs 4,500-crore PLI scheme for solar cells and modules had got interest for 54,500 MW manufacturing capacity of solar equipment and the country plans to export solar equipment.
The Budget has also proposed that energy storage systems including dense charging infrastructure and grid-scale battery systems will be conferred "infrastructure status". This will facilitate credit availability for digital infrastructure and clean energy storage.
In order to promote a shift to use of public transport, clean tech and governance solutions, special mobility zones with zero fossil-fuel policy, and EV vehicles will be brought in.
A Battery Swapping Policy will be brought out and inter-operability standards will be formulated to mitigate the constraints of space in urban areas for setting up charging stations. The private sector will be encouraged to develop sustainable and innovative business models for 'battery or energy as a service'. This will improve efficiency in the electric vehicle ecosystem.
As a part of the government's overall market borrowings in 2022-23, sovereign green bonds will be issued for mobilising resources for green infrastructure. The proceeds will be deployed in public sector projects, which help in reducing the carbon intensity of the economy.
In villages clean energypowered anganwadis and provisioning of decentralised renewable energy have been envisaged.
"With a huge thrust on renewables, initiatives like a battery swapping policy and issuance of sovereign green bonds... the Budget takes us a step forward towards decarbonising the economy," said Sanjiv Mehta, president, Ficci.