There is need for better planning, co-ordination, and execution in the renewable energy sector, said the Parliamentary Panel on Energy.
The Committee, headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav, has also suggested greater focus on research, design and development on new and renewable energy through technological advancement and adequate fund allocation.
In its ‘Report on Demands for Grants of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy,’ the Committee said that the Renewables Ministry seems to be getting punished by the Finance Ministry, as it is not accepting the recommendations of even the Planning Commission with regard to budgetary allocation for 2012-13.
The Committee was surprised to note that the Finance Ministry had sanctioned a meagre Rs 1,385 crore as gross budgetary support for 2012-13, not even 25 per cent of the proposed demand of the Renewables Ministry.
It felt that adequate funding is a must for harnessing the potential of available renewable resources.
The Committee strongly recommended higher fund allocation for the Ministry, so that “the renewable energy programmes, particularly the project of the ambitious Solar Mission may not face a setback” in the beginning of the 12{+t}{+h} Plan itself.
It has also expressed concern over non-achievement of targets of the first phase of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission.
The suggestions of the panel are more or less in sync with those expressed by the Climate Parliament, a multi-party group of MPs working on renewable energy.
The Climate Parliament has been demanding an increase in the share of renewable energy under the 12{+t}{+h} Plan, allocation of one per cent of the total budget to renewable energy, 100 per cent rural electrification through renewable sources, infrastructure status to renewable energy projects and creation of a Renewable Energy Research Fund.