As
we know, energy system is facing severe challenges. The
fossil energy resources such as oil and natural gas have become scarce. In a
country like India, especially in rural areas, renewable energy sources are abundant.
We can exploit wind energy, solar energy, hydroelectric energy, and biomass
energy keeping in view the local conditions. The development of renewable
energies can propel economic development; for example, manufacture,
maintenance, installation and consultancy services can create tremendous job
opportunities. The most important of all is that for the abatement of greenhouse
gas emissions, development of renewable energy is the only alternative
left. The main barriers for development
of renewable energy are cost, market share and policies. The cost of renewable
energy is much higher as compared to the traditional energy and, therefore,
there is a lot of uncertainty in terms of its development.140 To develop it at an
industrial scale, we have to invest in research and innovation. Lack of enough
capital for160
research and development and dependence on import of key equipment are
major causes behind the slow development of this sector. May I know from the honourable Minister
whether the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has undertaken any
macro-analysis to take a holistic view of this sector, and also to
understand and transcend the barriers that I have mentioned a little earlier?
Honourable Member, I am
grateful to you, that you have asked me this question. As far as renewable energy is concerned, let
me tell you that hydroelectric energy, wind energy and bio-mass energy cost us
a little over three rupees. However, the
cost of the solar energy falls between 15 to 20 rupees. It is a little costly. 280 We are trying our best to make it available
at a less costly rate. We are trying to
give a fillip to these industries. Under
the Jawaharlal Nehru Scheme of the Government of India, we are trying to indianize320
this sector. As more and more industries are set up and consumption increases,
the cost will definitely come down. As
far as the research and development in this sector is concerned, the
number of projects sanctioned each year by the Government during the period of
last three years is 40, 18, and 29 and the amount sanctioned for the
corresponding years has turned out to be more than the actual expenditure. Thus, the Government has sanctioned a large
amount for research and development in this field over the years. I assure you that the Government is alive to
its responsibility. 420 In
the Parliament House also, we are trying to reduce our dependency on
traditional energy sources. From the
next session, we plan to install renewable energy sources to provide
electricity to the Parliament House also.
Under the Universal Immunization
Programme, we are giving at the moment six vaccines in nine shots across the
country. There was a suggestion by480 the advisors and those who are looking
after the immunization programme that the new vaccine should be introduced
and five vaccines should be administered in one shot. So, it would be
five in one. We have received an offer of funding from the Global
Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, and we want to supplement that. Initially,
we wanted to start with five States and ultimately, we thought that five States
would be too less a number because whenever we introduce a560 particular scheme, we
would like to introduce geographically at least in different parts of
the country. So, we thought that the
foreign support should be supplemented with domestic support. We were in the advanced stage. We had worked
out the details and we had almost identified the States. Meanwhile, we had
referred this to the Health Research Department. The report of the
Health Research Department is yet to come stating whether we should introduce
this in the Universal Immunization Programme640 or not. In the
meantime, somebody had filed a PIL that it should not be introduced because
we know that drug is such a system where so many pharmaceutical companies
fight with each other globally and nationally as to whether this should be
introduced so that it does not affect their companies or should not be
introduced so that it700 does not affect their vaccine producing
companies. So, somebody has gone to court and on 7th of April, the court has
given us another date, that is, in the month of July. At the moment,
we are waiting for the report of the Health Research Department and the outcome
of the decision of the honourable High Court.
I
would like to inform the honourable Member that the southern States in general
are doing extremely well in so far as the immunization part is concerned. Unfortunately,
in the rest of the country, it is not as good as it should be. 800 What we have done is the most
important thing. So far, we either purchase or get the vaccines from
outside, from the World Health Organization; and these vaccines are
being supplied to the State Government. The State Governments are not840
only provided with the vaccines, but they are also being given money to
implement this on the ground. Generally,
it has been seen that the number that we get from the States with regard to
immunization is not happening on the ground. Now, we have, for the first
time, introduced tracking of children who are being immunized. I am sure,
this is a scientific method which we have introduced. We are going to
have the telephone numbers of parents of all those children who
are going to be immunized across the country. If the parents do not have the
telephone, we may have the telephone number of any member of the family
and if even the family member does not960 have the
telephone, then the telephone number of anybody in the village or the
neighbourhood. We are going to have980 a call centre in Delhi and through that
call centre, we are going to telephone and monitor with the help of the names
and the telephone numbers which the State Governments have given to us and ask
the health workers who are implementing this at the village level or at the
town level to find out whether they have really been immunized or not.
This is a new intervention. I am sure, in the next month, we are going to get
the first result and in the month of July, I will be able to tell
them the outcome of the new scheme launched.
The
availability of biomass in India is estimated at about 540 million tons per
year covering residues from agriculture, agro-industry, forestry and
plantations. Principal agriculture
residues include rice husk, rice straw, bagasse, sugar cane leaves, trash1120,
groundnut shells, cotton stalks, mustard stalks, etc. It has been estimated that about 70
per cent of these wastes are used as fodder, fuel for domestic cooking, and for
other economic purposes leaving behind 120 million tons of usable agro-industrial
and agriculture residues every year which could be made available for power
generation. By using these surplus
agricultural residues, more than 16,000 megawatts of grid quality power can be
generated with presently available technologies. In addition, about 5000 megawatts of power
can be produced, if the sugar mills in the country switch over to modern
techniques of co-generation. Thus, the
country is considered to have a biomass power potential of about 21,000 megawatts. Madam,
the Ministry has been implementing a scheme for promotion of Grid Interactive
Power Generation Projects based on renewable energy sources which
includes projects based on1260 biomass. In the last 10 years, a cumulative
capacity of more than 2000 megawatts has been commissioned, which includes both
the1280
bagasse co-generation projects and the biomass combustion projects. The States which have taken a
leadership position in implementation of biomass power projects are
Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Punjab and
Rajasthan. The capacity of grid
connected biomass power project varies from 8 to 15 megawatts. In the current Five Year Plan, it is planned
to establish 2000 megawatts of biomass power and during the first three years,
the achievement is 1100 megawatts.
Madam,
I have made it abundantly clear in my answer that biomass is one
of the things for which we are going in a big way. I have myself seen some of the projects in
Punjab. A rice exporter is already generating
30 megawatts from1400 rice husk. He is now making a 60-megawatt capacity
project. I am sure, my friend from
Kerala would realize that up to this time, Kerala has not done much. It needs to do much more. The United Nations Development Programme has1440
given 6 million dollars and the Government of India has put in 5 million
dollars for these projects. Now,
we have selected certain model areas where we will put these model
projects to see how well they function.
Once we see that their functioning is good, they will be
implemented in the rest of the country. We
have also said that there are a number of biomass projects. There are three categories of this. One is bigger biomass projects which go into
many megawatts. Then there are middle
ones which are two-megawatt projects, and finally, there are very small
projects of some kilowatts. Now a
number of these small projects have a problem.
Their machines are not able to take what is presently available. The Government of India has taken it upon
itself that if any of these projects have not come up to its expectations, it
is ready to give all the help to change their technology so that1600
they can produce better energy.
