Delhi’s power demand tipped to almost double in 20 years.
The draft Master Plan for Delhi 2041 has laid down strategies that would allow more than 50% of this energy requirement to be met through renewable sources of energy.
Envisioning Delhi as a sustainable city, and aiming to enhance its global competitiveness, the draft MPD41 says that the capital needs to switch to clean energy. In 2016-17, Delhi per-capita power consumption was 1,561 units per annum against the national average of 1,122 and 78 % of the consumed power was purchased. The remaining comes from installed capacity within Delhi, with coal (59%) being the predominant generator, followed by gas (28%), hydro (10%) and solar power (3%).
The national policy, and Delhi’s state solar policy of 2016 too, target meeting around 20% of power consumption from renewable sources by 2022, MPD41 states, adding that the city has to meet roughly 50.5% of its power consumption from renewable sources by 2041 to fulfil the national level targets set by the Union ministry of new and renewable energy.
The draft MPD41 says that in light of global warming and climate change, Delhi needs to develop a renewable energy plan to enable the transition from conventional sources such as fossil fuels to clean energy. The plan notes that Delhi has a high potential for solar power generation and recommends strategies such as encouraging solar farms in the green development areas envisaged on the city’s periphery. Models based on power purchase agreements may be adopted to incentivise landowners to set up solar farms on their agricultural lands, the draft says, while recommending the use of canals for harnessing solar energy.
Government buildings and institutional campuses with a roof top area above 500 sq metres are to install solar photovoltaic panels under Delhi Solar Policy 2016 and Net Metering Regulations, 2014, and large public facilities such as airports, metro stations, railway stations, inter-state and city bus stations and depots, stadiums etc. are to progressively meet most of their power requirements through solar energy.
Energy world