UP govt to promote e-vehicles, targets 10,700 mw of solar energy

The energy minister said the state was targetting solar energy generation of 10,700 megawatt (mw) by 2022 in the private sector to conserve environment and curb pollution

Uttar Pradesh energy minister Shrikant Sharma on Friday said the state government was keen to promote e-vehicles as a non-polluting medium of mass mobility.

Sharma further said the state was targetting solar energy generation of 10,700 megawatt (mw) by 2022 in the private sector to conserve environment and curb pollution.

Addressing the ‘India Solar and E-Vehicle Expo-2020’ organised by MSME chamber Indian Industries Association (IIA) here, he said the Yogi Adityanath government would collaborate with the private sector to promote the use of green energy and non-polluting vehicles.

“We have set the target of 10,700 mw of solar energy generation, including 6,400 mw in utility scale and 4,300 mw from rooftop solar energy plants,” he informed. The utility scale grid solar power projects directly feed the grid under a power purchase agreement (PPA) with UP Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL).

Sharma said the government was already in the process of introducing online system in the renewable energy wing UP New and Renewable Energy Development Agency (UPNEDA) to facilitate the private entrepreneurs in the solar energy sector.

In fact, the Adityanath government had set the target of attracting investment to the tune of Rs 50,000 crore in the solar sector by 2022, when the solar energy policy was announced in December 2017. Under the policy, the state had proposed to develop a Green Energy Corridor in Bundelkhand at an investment of Rs 4,000 crore with part funding by the central government.

At the UP Investor Summit on February 21-22, 2018, the government had garnered investment proposals worth Rs 72,800 crore in the renewable energy sector. In fact, the green energy sector had accounted for over 15 per cent of total investment proposals of Rs 4.68 trillion worth of Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs) signed during the two-day Summit.

The green energy sector with 46 MoUs of Rs 72,800 crore stood second only to the iinfra sector, which topped with list with maximum investment proposals of Rs 1.80 trillion, for which MoUs were signed, thus accounting for over 38% of total proposals.

Interestingly, the green energy sector investment proposals was 10 times compared to the conventional energy sector, which managed only Rs 7,600 crore worth of 11 MoUs.

In August 2019, the Adityanath government had announced its maiden e-vehicles policy, under which the government is targetting to attract Rs 40,000 crore in investment over the next 5 years. Equipped with the policy, the government projected the segment to create 50,000 jobs.

The government has projected 200,000 charging stations in UP over the next few years to cater the growing fleet of public and private e-vehicles.

Meanwhile, UPNEDA director Bhawani Singh informed the state was providing sops and subsidies, including transmission fee waiver, free laying of transmission lines, land subsidy etc to promote the solar energy sector.