Government to Promote Use of Green Energy in Telecommunication Sector
The Minister of New and Renewable Energy, Dr. Farooq Abdullah today informed Rajya Sabha that the Government has accepted TRAI recommendations on ‘Approach towards Green Telecommunication’ and has decided to accordingly promote the use of green energy in the telecommunication sector setting broad directions and goals to achieve desired reduction in carbon emission through use of Renewable energy technologies and energy efficient equipment. Directions in this regard have been issued by the Department of Telecommunications on 23.01.2012 to the licensees for implementation with immediate effect. These directions stipulate, inter-alia, that at least 50% of all rural telecom towers and 20% of the urban towers are to be powered by hybrid power (Renewable Energy Technologies + Grid Power) by 2015 while 75% of rural towers and 33% of urban towers are to be powered by such systems by 2020. The minister further said that as reported by the Indian Wind Turbine Manufacturers Association (IWTMA), the Public Sector Units (PSUs) have so far established around 1135 MW wind power projects in the country. The minister further said the Government of India is promoting wind power projects through private sector investment by providing fiscal and promotional incentives such as concessional import duty on certain components of wind electric generators, excise duty exemption to manufacturers. 10 years tax holiday on income generated from wind power projects is also available. Technical support including wind resource assessment is provided by the Centre for Wind Energy Technology (C-WET), Chennai. In addition, preferential tariff is being provided in many states, he added.
