Must ramp up thermal power, says Parliamentary panel

Ajay Banerjee

New Delhi, August 2

A parliamentary standing committee, in separate reports, tabled in Parliament on Tuesday called for increasing the capacity of wind-power generating turbines and asked the government to generate more power from coal-fired thermal plants while using technology to cut down on emissions.

The committee said the cumulative installed capacity of wind power in the country is only 40.71 gigawatt as on May 31, which is less than one-fifth of the commercially exploitable potential. One of the reasons is less availability of “wind-rich sites”. The committee feels only a fraction of the country’s wind potential has been tapped, amounting to underutilisation.

The panel said the installed capacity of solar power had exponentially increased. “It gives an impression that solar energy has been prioritised over wind energy despite heavy dependence on imports in solar energy sector,” the report said. India has 34 manufacturing units in the wind energy sector, while components are exported from India to the USA, Australia, European countries and Brazil. The committee recommends that the wind energy sector should be given due priority vis-à-vis solar energy sector.