Rajasthan Leading State in Renewable Energy

Clean, renewable energy is the only solution to the growing demand for power in India which has to be met without damaging the environment any further. Until now it was Gujarat that was leading producer of solar energy in India.

Recently it was overtaken by its neighbour Rajasthan. The state always had lots of barren land and high radiation from sun but never was able to get maximum benefit of natural conditions due to faulty business friendly policies and the state government was also not keen on promoting use of clean, renewable energy.

All this changed with the change in the government and aggressive promotion by Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje saw that within no time state overtook Gujarat as leading producer of solar energy. The number of projects that are already in pipeline ensures that Rajasthan will lead the race for many years now.

Harnessing the Sun#Rajasthan has implemented policies 2 tap its potential for electricity gen via renewable sources pic.twitter.com/Jks1E0Jspq

— Indian Diplomacy (@IndianDiplomacy) June 7, 2016

Rajasthan is soon to become export hub as far as solar energy is concerned as many companies are ready to invest in solar sector in Rajasthan one to meet their renewable power purchase target and also they will put in place open access system so that they can draw power to the location they wish to use at.

Advantages Rajasthan has:

Rajasthan shines on the solar map of India with 300-330 clear sunny days comparable to deserts of California, Nevada, Colorado and Arizona.

Within the state the districts such as Barmer, Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur are the key regions with best solar radiation.

Rajasthan is endowed with two critical resources that are essential to solar power production: high level of solar radiation (6-7 kWh/ m2/ day) and large tracts of relatively flat, undeveloped land.

These factors were key contributors to the state receiving maximum share of 873 MW out of 1,100 MW allocations (79.36%) in phase-I of Jawahar Lal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM).

Under the second phase of JNNSM 355 MW has been allotted to Rajasthan out of 750 MW. The total installed capacity of 866.60 MW has been established in the State as on December, 2014.

Rajasthan's solar policy which was developed in 2014 is aimed at attracting investors.

Surging ahead!
Take a look at the favourable investment policies for a @ResurgentRaj#TransformingIndia pic.twitter.com/Br5uAIVnEU

— Indian Diplomacy (@IndianDiplomacy) June 7, 2016

Scope of renewable energy at national level:

During 2015 India ranked fifth in the world in Renewable Energy (RE) job creation, with 416,000 employed.

India is graduating from megawatts to gigawatts in renewable energy production.

Workshops are organised in different states by renewable energy department to promote green buildings.

India is running the world's largest renewable energy expansion programme with a target to increase overall renewable capacity by more than 5 times from 32,000 MW in 2014 to 1,75,000 MW in 2022.

By taking a leadership role in the International Solar Alliance of 121 countries and organising RE-Invest 2015, the world's largest renewable financing meet, our government has laid the foundations for massive growth in this sector.