State considering renewable energy to meet power needs

Panaji: The state government has approached the Union ministry of new and

renewable

energy (MNRE) to undertake a feasibility study and provide technical assistance to assess potential, availability of technologies and financial viability to set up

power

generation projects from new and renewable

energy

sources.

A senior official said that the study will find out if Goa can generate power from renewable energy source to meet all its power

needs

.

The government has proposed to generate power from renewable sources in the state to the extent possible by assessing the potential to generate power from sources like solar, wind, hydro, biomass, wave and tidal and storage of solar power etc.

Goa requires approximately 540MW of power during the day time and 640MW during peak hours from 6pm to 11pm.

The official said that the state generates approximately between 80 and 282MW through waste, to heat recovery boilers of M/s Vedanta and M/s Goa Sponge and Power Ltd, while the balance power is drawn from the national grid which includes thermal as well as power from renewable sources.

The official added that the solid waste management facility generates about 0.37MW of power from biogas.

The government notified a solar policy with 50% subsidy on the benchmark cost. However, till date only about 15MW installations have been completed.

The national institute of wind energy has carried out mapping of potential for generation of power from wind in Goa.

The official also pointed out challenges faced by the state to generate power from new and renewable energy sources including, technology and financial viability for storage of the power generated through solar, the technology itself as well as financial liability to generate power from biogas, biomass as well as from small hydro power points at various dams of the water resources department, from windmills and from wave and tidal sources.