State policies on clean energy need improvement: CII study

Industry chamber CII has made a case for more appropriate state policies to boost clean energy and stressed on the need for building green corridor to achieve the target of 175 gw of renewable capacity by 2022.
"The ecosystem of renewable energy in India is still fraught with constraints, in particular with respect to state policies," CII said in its 'State Renewable Energy Policies: A Comparative Study' released today.
It further stated that even though most northern states have come up with their renewable energy policies, it is important to understand and imbibe the best incentives and practices depending on the need of the state or region.

"There is a need for well-defined renewable energy policies in the states to create a conducive environment to lead this transformation by leapfrogging old technologies and building a state-of-the-art smart grid powered by affordable renewable energy," said Ratul Puri, Chairman, CII NR Committee on Power, during the fourth edition of the CII Renewable Energy Summit today.
Puri added that North India alone has renewable energy potential to the tune of 365 gw whereas around 10,247 mw of power has been harnessed so far.
Some of the challenges listed by him that need to be addressed on a priority basis include precarious financial health of discoms, inadequate and outdated grid infrastructure and operations, fragmented solar component manufacturing with many small players and high aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses.

He is of the view that exemption from wheeling charges, electricity duty and incentives may help in attracting fresh investments in the new and renewable sector.
K S Popli, chairman and managing director, Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA), said the cost of financing renewable energy projects will decrease significantly with deepening of the bond market.