GS 2: Governance | Government policies & interventions for development

Why in News?

The government has modified the existing scheme for development of solar parks and ultra mega solar parks in a bid to ease constraints related to availability of land and evacuation infrastructure.

The new guidelines-Mode-7:

• A new mode is being introduced for development of renewable energy parks (solar/wind/hybrid/other RE parks) through Solar Energy Corporation of India(SECI).
• SECI will make both government and private land available for successful bidders for setting up projects with the assistance of state government.
• The state government would be paid a facilitation charge of Rs 0.02 per unit of power being generated in these parks.
• No fund from Central Financial Assistance (CFA) would be used for the procurement of land.
• SECI would act as a Solar Power Park Developer (SPPD) and will get the external power evacuation infrastructure of the parks developed by the External Transmission Development Agency such as transmission utilities.
• SECI would also set up a Payment Security Mechanism to make setting up of renewable projects in such parks more attractive.

Solar Park scheme:

• Ministry of New and renewable Energy (MNRE) has drawn a scheme to set up number of solar parks across various states in the country.
• The Scheme proposes to provide financial support by Government of India to establish solar parks.
• The scheme aim to facilitate creation of infrastructure necessary for setting up new solar power projects in terms of allocation of land, transmission and evacuation lines, access roads, availability of water and others, in a focused manner.
• The implementation agency would be Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) on behalf of Government of India (GOI).
• The Solar Park is a concentrated zone of development of solar power generation projects
• The parks will be characterized by well-developed proper infra-structure where the risk & gestation period of the projects will be minimized.
• At the state level, the solar park will enable the states to bring in significant investment from project developers in Solar Power sector, to meet its Solar Purchase Obligation (SPO) mandates and provide employment opportunities to local population.
• The state will also be able to reduce its carbon footprint by avoiding emissions equivalent to the solar park’s generated capacity.