Developing Solar Cities in Assam

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), way back in 2010 set the ball rolling to harness all types of renewable energy (bio, wind, hydro, solar, geothermal & tidal) and lessen the dependence on fossil fuels by increasing the share of renewable and alternate fuels depending on need and resource availability in a city. The aim was to increase the share of clean power and thereby reduce the Green house Gas (GHG) emissions.

The cumulative achievement target is 1, 75,000 MW by the year 2022. The break up is Solar Power (99533 MW), Wind (60000 MW) SHP (5000 MW) Biomass Power (10000 MW). The share for the North Easter States is 1820 MW out of which Solar Power is 1205 MW and SHP is 615 MW. The individual share of the North Easter States are Assam (Solar Power 663 MW and SHP 25 MW), Manipur (Solar Power 105 MW) Meghalaya (Solar Power 161 MW and SHP 50 MW), Nagaland (Solar Power 61 MW and SHP 15 MW), Tripura (Solar Power 105 MW), Arunachal Pradesh (Solar Power 39 MW and SHP 500 MW) and Mizoram (Solar Power 72 MW and SHP 25 MW). Sikkim with (Solar Power 36 MW and SHP 50 MW) is not included in the NE Region. The cumulative achievement as on 30.06.2015 is 36470.64 MW (Grid-interactive power) and 1173.11 (Off-grid/ captive power with capacities in MWeq) which is around 21.5% of the cumulative target for 2022.

To achieve the projected cumulative target of 1, 75,000 MW by the year 2022, the MNRE initiated the project “Development of Solar Cities” in 2010.  The aim of a Solar City is to reduce the projected demand of conventional energy by 10% at the end of five years, through a combination of enhancing supply from renewable energy sources in the city and energy efficiency measures. The basic aim is to motivate the local Governments for adopting renewable energy technologies and energy efficiency measures. In a Solar City all types of renewable energy based projects like solar, wind, biomass, small hydro, waste to energy etc. may be installed along with possible energy efficiency measures depending on the need and resource availability in the city. 
A total of 60 cities/towns were proposed to be developed as ‘Solar Cities’ during the 11th Plan period. The ministry had empanelled 26 consultants in June 2009 to prepare the master plans. However, MNRE has recently approved 50 Solar Cities across the country and have also accorded in principle approval to 5 other cities. MNRE has sanctioned 8 Solar Cities for NE region; Guwahati and Jorhat are in Assam, Kohima and Dimapur in Nagaland, Aizawl in Mizoram, Agartala in Tripura, Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh and Imphal in Manipur. Out of these, Agartala and Aizawl will be ‘Pilot Solar Cities’. 46 cities including all the NE cities have already submitted their respective master plans. 

The master plan of the cities include the base line for energy consumption during the year 2008, demand forecasting for the years 2013 and 2018, sector-wise strategies and action plan for implementation of renewable energy projects so as to mitigate the fossil fuel consumption in the city. The actions that are to be undertaken by the Municipal Corporations and City Councils/District Administrations for developing a Solar City are: Creation of a “Solar City Cell”, constitution of a “Solar City Stake Holders Committee”, promoting a National Rating System for construction of energy efficient Green Buildings, amending building bye-laws for making the use of solar water heating systems mandatory in certain category of buildings, providing rebate in property tax, electricity tariff to the users of household solar water heaters, complying with MSW Rules 2000 notified by the Ministry of Environment, organizing rigorous publicity, and also the training programmes/ business meets for various stake holders and generating necessary funds from State Govt. and other funding organizations for achieving the objective of making the city as “Solar City”.

For, the two solar cities of Assam, Guwahati and Jorhat, an amount of 45.40 lakh and 49.18 lakh respectively have been sanctioned out of which 7.72 lakh and 24.18 lakh respectively have been already released. The master plans for both Guwahati and Jorhat have been created, with Jorhat also creating the “Solar City Cell.”

In the master plan of Guwahati, taking 2009-10 as the base year, the baseline consumption scenario was determined as 3214 million equivalent units of electricity. The future projections for the year 2014-15 based on last five years estimates was estimated as 3999 million equivalent units of electricity. So, the 10% reduction target set for the year 2014-15 is 399.9 million which will result in an estimated reduction of 370083 tonnes of green house gases from going into the atmosphere. Out of the total budgeted expenditure of Rs.923.86 crores, MNRE will bear Rs.327.15 crores (35.41%), Assam government Rs.417.59 crores (45.20%) and the share of the end user will be Rs.179.12 crores (19.39%) of the total budgeted expenditure.

Similarly, in the master plan of Jorhat, the baseline consumption scenario was determined as 397 million equivalent units of electricity. The future projections as 473 million equivalent units of electricity and so the target reduction as 47.3 million equivalent units of electricity. The total budgeted expenditure is Rs.130.70 crores and the share of MNRE shall be Rs.38.65 crores (34.82%), Assam  government Rs.57.10 crores (51.45%) and end user Rs.15.23 crores (13.73%). It is estimated that an approximate reduction in green house gas emission will be 164822 tonnes.

The planning has been done, but the implementation, which as per the data available is progressing at a snail's pace. Guwahati has not yet created ‘Solar City Cell’, Project proposals are yet to be developed by the AEDA /Municipal Corporation, Funds towards the Solar City Cell and Promotional Activities not Utilized. But, Jorhat is a bit ahead in this regard with the creation of the ‘Solar City Cell’ and have already submitted 7 Proposals of 74 kWp eq. to MNRE which are under consideration.

Since, solar power is a sustainable and feasible source of energy, we can  hope that the two solar city projects in Assam will be successful with the other similar projects in the country. These solar city projects should pave way for more such projects for small towns through the PPP (Public-Private Partnership) route in our state. This will reduce the dependence on the conventional sources for generation of electricity and also pave way for a pollution free world in the near future.

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Published in Assam Tribune (http://www.assamtribune.com/)on 29 August, 2015.

 
Note: The data have been collected from the website of MNRE

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