Budgetary allocation for renewable energy to be upped to

around Rs 1,200-cr: Official

Mumbai, Feb 17 (PTI) In a bid to encourage new projectsin the renewable energy sector, the Central Government isplanning to increase its budgetary allocation for the sectorto around Rs 1,200-crore in 2011-12, a senior Governmentofficial said.

In 2010-11, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee hadallocated Rs 1,000-crore, a 61 per cent hike as compared tothe allocation made in FY 10.

"For the next year (2011-12), we expect a budgetaryprovision of Rs 1,200-crore for the sector," Adviser to theMinistry of New and Renewable Energy, N P Singh, toldreporters on the sidelines of the Renewtech India 2011 Summithere today.

For 2009-10, the Government had approved an outlay ofRs 620-crore.

Currently, the country has a total capacity of 18,000MW of renewable energy connected to the grid, of which nearly12,000 MW is contributed by wind energy, he said.

"There is a huge potential in this sector given thefact that coal and oil reserves are slowly depleting. We havea scope to diversify into other forms of renewable energysources like solar, biogas and hydro power," Singh said.

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