Karnataka to make land acquisition simpler for renewable projects
Karnataka has moved an amendment to the Karnataka Land Reforms Act to facilitate promoters of renewable energy projects to acquire revenue land for developing power plants in the sector.
“Presently, the acquisition of revenue and agriculture land is not easy and renewable energy producers are finding it difficult to acquire land. The amendment is expected to simplify procedures for land acquisition,” said K Jairaj, additional chief secretary, government of Karnataka.
Jairaj told reporters on the sidelines of 14th annual general meeting of the Indian Wind Power Association (IWPA), “We have proposed an amendment to the KLRA to facilitate the renewable energy developers to buy land for their new units. Now, the state government has also given industry status to renewable energy (RE) in the new RE policy. They can also go through the single window agency and secure clearance as well as the land acquired from the KIADB.”
Jairaj added that the state government was planning to add 4,000 Mw of wind energy to the state grid during the next four years. In 2010-11, the state plans to add 712 Mw of wind power to the grid. Of this, already 80 Mw is added in the first quarter of this year. The state would also add 60 Mw of solar power and 130 Mw from mini hydel projects, he said.
Stating that Karnataka has a potential to generate 12,000 Mw from the wind energy sector, Jairaj said so far only 1,866 Mw comes from the wind, which is about 15 per cent.
K Kasthoorirangaian, chairman, IWPA urged the ministry of finance to raise the accelerated depreciation from the present 80 per cent to 100 per cent as was done before. It also demanded for exempting wind energy income from minimum alternate tax and accord priority sector status to the wind energy sector in the financing of wind power projects and an interest subvention of 300 basis points. He also urged the state government to exempt wind energy from electricity consumption tax and give capital subsidy for installation of windmills.
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