April 15, 2015: Odisha has made a plea to the centre to provide monetary aid to the state from National Clean Energy Fund (NCEF) for execution of clean energy projects in the state.
“The NCEF corpus is estimated to have reached about Rs 110 billion by the end of 2014-15. The proceeds of the fund are from a cess levied at the rate of Rs 100 a tonne from coal mined in states like Odisha. So, we have requested the Union power ministry to allot adequate funds from NCEF to implement small hydro and solar power projects. We will soon submit a list of such projects with fund requirement to the Government of India to avail funds from NCEF,” a senior state official said, reported Business Standard.
Odisha has numerous renewable energy projects which are in pressing need of funds.