Aiming to relieve the distressed farming community in the country, the Union government plans to come with a new scheme to equip them with solar pumps. These solar pumps apart from conserving water and power usage could supply excess power to the micro-grid and generate income for the farmers.
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy banks on Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan (KUSUM), to save on power subsidies. “We are seeking to install 1.5 lakh solar pumps under the ministry of new and renewable energy's KUSUM scheme,” said Anand Kumar, MNRE secretary.
“With micro-grid connections in place, power utilities could save thousands of crores spent on power subsidies to farmers,” said Kumar, speaking about the scheme at a TERI function.
The scheme is already in its final stages of finalisation. “The KUSUM scheme is at a mature state of finalisation. We hope to roll it out by the first half of the next fiscal,” Anand Kumar later told THE WEEK.
According to Kumar, the scheme would have the capability to generate additional Rs 10000-Rs 60000 per month through solar pumps and through initiatives to allow usage of infertile lands as solar farms. “These tail farms with 1-2 MW capacity needs about four acres to set up. Any farmer with one acre land to devote could participate under the scheme,” Kumar said.
However, contrary to the MNRE secretary's viewpoint, industry observers noted that there are existing problems with solar pumps being used in various states under the state government schemes. “We are struggling with millions of crudely made and inefficient solar pump sets which are being used currently. We are figuring out how to convert these existing sets into energy efficient pumps with four or five star rating,” said Pankaj Kumar, secretary, Bureau of Energy Efficiency.
The BEE is currently engaged with the state governments of Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh to convert solar pumps of farmers in these states. In UP alone, lakhs of pump sets, procured often with World Bank and other aids by multilateral agencies to state governments, were found to be grossly inefficient.
Apart from solar, the MNRE is also coming up with revised policies to aid project developers of micro-hydel and wind power producers, and setting up new green power corridors to aid power transmission from renewable energy sources.
The government has not been able to achieve its targets under the rooftop solar scheme, which led to a rethink on the solar policy. “We are expecting the first bid for offshore wind power to happen in this calendar year,” said Anand Kumar, MNRE secretary.
The locations for offshore wind power generation from within India's sea boundaries have been selected as Dwarka, off Gujarat coast and another off Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu, Kumar said. His ministry is expected to finish an offshore bidding policy for wind power later this year.