The Ministry of Coal and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy are planning to work together to promote green energy in the country.
During a secretary-level joint meeting, an agreement was reached between the two ministries. According to the decision, the Ministry of Coal will be responsible for land and capital, and overseeing the execution of solar energy, green hydrogen, and other renewable energy ventures. Simultaneously, the MNRE will extend its expertise in technical aspects, policy formulation, and capacity enhancement.
The central PSUs under the coal ministry, such as CIL, NCIL, and SCCL, have already started working towards net zero. A solar generation capacity of 1600 MW has been installed, with another 500 MW capacity in various stages of implementation.
At the meeting, it was also decided that the de-coaled and surplus land masses owned by coal companies could be offered to private investors for setting up green hydrogen and pumped storage projects.
Several Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) also have massive amounts of land spaces being used as overburdened dumps. These refers to the area where the overlying soil and fragmented rocks removed during the mining process are dumped. Such overburdened dumps occupy usable land spaces and also degrade the quality of soil.
The ministries are planning to use these areas to set up solar projects. Additionally, all the government buildings and houses in the colonies across coal-bearing areas, will be covered with rooftop solar plants. A full assessment will be carried out to discern the feasibility of this project.
MNRE will provide training to the engineers, technicians, and other functionaries under the Coal Ministry and its CPSEs, through the National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE). Officials are also planning to provide suitable knowledge partnerships through IIT Roorkee, Solar Energy Corporation of India, and other resource agencies associated with MNRE.
CPSEs under the Ministry of Coal are targeting a generation capacity of about 12 GW by 2030.
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Resource: Press Information Bureau, GOI
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