Dimapur, December 2 (MExN): The department of New & Renewable Energy today claimed that the “solar city” projects in Nagaland will “not only enhance the productivity of the govt” but also make “substantial revenue for the state govt.” Responding to doubts on the feasibility of administering Kohima’s energy from a solar-based system, the department issued a press release today explaining long-term benefits the project can create.
The department of New & Renewable Energy explained the reasons why the department decided to go ahead with the “scheme” of providing solar power plants to all major government offices in Kohima during year 2011-12 “despite of prohibitive initial investment such project entails.”
Most of the departmental programmes are funded by the ministry concerned and the state bears only a small share, the department’s director TS Angami stated. “It may be, therefore, seen that it is the GOI (government of India) which provides the much needed cushion so that programmes are executed on time by the state within an affordable budget. The payback period of the state investment for this programme, JNNSM-SPV, Solar Power Plant, is expected within the next five years and, thereafter, the project will start earning revenue to the state exchequer from its own generation.”
According to the department, “this project will not only enhance the productivity of the govt” by doing away with the perennial load-shedding “during office hours” but also “earns substantial revenue for the state govt.” This aspect is “unlike many projects in the state,” Angami said.
There are also provisions to sell back surplus energy to the Power departments ‘so that the monthly bills are reduced and overall power purchase by the state is also curtailed to some extent.’
Further, the department said, revenue can be earned through Carbon Trading or the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) “by merely producing renewable energy.” Projects as the current one are “rather more productive in the long run and should be encouraged and adopted by the state.”
The press release illustrated an instance – “If seeing is believing, anyone is welcome to this office premises to see the 10KW Solar Power plant which has been recently installed and is under testing stage and see on line generation of electricity even on a cloudy day.
The directorate of New & Renewable Energy Nagaland look forward to run its own business after the above plant is commissioned very soon so are the other 47 directorates in Kohima.”
On the Kohima solar city project, the department said the master plan has just recently been approved by the ministry “but official communication is yet to be received.” Also, Dimapur has been accepted to be a solar city and a reputed firm from Mumbai is being engaged for collection of baseline data of the city, the department said.
“Basically, the objective of solar city is to encourage usage of locally available renewable energy, not necessarily solar energy alone, so that usage of fossil fuelled grid power is reduced to the extent of 2% per year in a time span of 5 years,” Angami said.
To achieve the stated objectives, the department is collaborating with the municipality take up a number of projects such as solar streetlights including for the wards, solar water heaters to dwellers, solar home lighting and solar lamps, family size biogas, wind-powered energy and hydro power, waste-to-energy and energy conservation measures and facilities.
“Due to time, space and other constrains, we are unable to furnish the detail of all the schemes in this paper in one shot but it is hope that adequate clarification has been made, but still then, the dept’ will be more than willing to share any information on renewable energy in Nagaland, either through personnel contact or 2242565,” the press release added.
