Monday, July 07, 2014: The World Bank is set to push its expertise to the Indian state of Odisha, in order to help and develop medium term renewable energy policy. This initiative would enable Odisha to be less dependent on natural and fossil fuels and make itself the leading state to promote renewable energy.
For this project, World Bank would work with International Finance Corp, which is helping the government to develop a solar energy policy. Odisha was among the first state, leaving behind Gujarat and Rajasthan, to implement a solar power project with the object of fulfilling the RPO (renewable purchase obligation).
Odisha Renewable Energy Development Agency(OREDA) awarded a 25 MW solar photovoltaic project in 2012 to help the state distribution company to procure solar power to meet RPO target. It also allotted another 25 MW project in order to achieve its target.
The state has solar power potential of 10,000 MW which can make it resourceful for any solar project in India. Government is likely to announce major incentives for private developers and the state has attracted major investments from independent power producers. They may be attracted by REC(Renewable Energy Certificate) scheme, which offers attractive tariffs than those arising from competitive auctions.
The current scope of this scheme by World Bank is medium term but the target is to make it a long term association. It has advantage of a coastal state and has ability to tap offshore wind energy, once central govt gives nod to it.
The central government is set to launch National Wind Energy Mission (NWEM). With most of the high wind density sites taken up by projects, Odisha has scope and resources for renewable energy project. It all depends on state government, if they offer favourable market conditions to the project developers.
The renewable energy policy announced by Odisha will focus on 2022. It has a national target to increase the share of renewable energy of electricity to 15 per cent and solar power to 3 per cent.
