India has set an ambitious target of replacing diesel with renewable energy (RE) in the agriculture sector so as to make it diesel free by 2024, as part of the government’s commitment to increase the share of non-fossil fuels by 2030 and becoming net zero emitter by 2070, the Power Ministry said on Friday.
On Thursday, Power and New & Renewable Energy Minister R K Singh chaired a virtual meeting with the officers of Ministry of Power and MNRE, Additional Chief Secretaries and Principal Secretaries of Power/Energy Departments of States & Union territories to discuss their role in India’s energy transition goals.
“Singh stressed that India will replace diesel with renewables to achieve the target of zero diesel use in the agricultural sector by 2024,” Power Ministry said in a statement.
COP26 commitment
The meeting was organised in line with the Prime Minister’s commitment at COP26, towards reducing the carbon intensity of India. The objective of this meeting was to ensure the State’s participation in fulfilling India’s climate commitments and each State and UT can be assigned energy saving targets, it added.
Singh stressed on collaborative efforts between the Central and State governments towards the large-scale deployment of energy efficiency measures in potential sectors of the economy. He emphasised on the need to have a State specific agency dedicated for energy efficiency and conservation. He also urged that the States should develop an action plan to achieve the assigned targets. “We are working for a new and modern India, which cannot happen without modern power systems, and we look forward to working with all States and UTs to achieve this,” the Minister said. Power Secretary Alok Kumar stressed on the support and cooperation from States and UTs to facilitate the development of the State Energy Efficiency Action Plan and its adoption and implementation to achieve the States/UTs specific goals.
The meeting concluded with an interactive session with the State/UT officials who also highlighted the state-level activities accomplished during the recent years. The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) will hand hold States in preparing action plans for achieving targeted goals.
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has provided financial support for electrification of various public service institutions including anganwadis, health centres, schools, panchayat offices, railways and bus stations in rural areas of the country under Off-grid and Decentralized Solar PV Applications programme and Rooftop Solar programme. As of December 31, 2021, under the off-grid and decentralised solar PV applications programme 216.88 MW has been installed, while under the grid-connected rooftop solar programme 2504.07 MW has been installed.
The objective of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan (PM-KUSUM) include de-dieselisation of the farm sector, providing water and energy security to farmers, increasing the income of farmers and curbing environmental pollution. Solar power plants of total 4,909 MW capacity under Component-A of the scheme have been sanctioned so far. Under Component-B, 3.59 lakh standalone solar pumps and solarisation of over 10 lakh existing agriculture pumps under Component-C, have been sanctioned till date. The scheme is demand driven, based on demand received from the States and Union Territories.
Under the Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana (Saubhagya), 2.817 crore households were electrified up to March 31, 2021, including 4.16 lakh through solar based standalone systems. Based on the requests from the states, electrification of an additional 11.83 lakh households, including 1.35 lakh households through solar based standalone systems, have been additionally sanctioned by the government under the Deen Dayal Upadhya Gram Jyoti Yojana.