Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

100 hamlets to be covered under Village Energy Security Project

Staff Reporter

The programme is implemented through local panchayat

COIMBATORE: The Union Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources hopes to commission Village Energy Security Project in 100 hamlets (that do not have grid supply) in the country this year.

Its secretary, V. Subramanian, told The Hindu recently that there was no feasibility of power supply through grid to about 25,000 villages in the country due to factors such as terrain and distance. The Ministry had identified about 100 hamlets with 60 to 70 houses each for a test project, which commenced last year and the idea was to provide energy from non-conventional energy sources in these places. The Ministry extended about 90 per cent of the capital cost as subsidy.

It was recently inaugurated in a hamlet in Madhya Pradesh. In Tamil Nadu, four hamlets in Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri and Dindigul districts were identified for the project.

It expected to provide energy to these hamlets by July and complete the project in all the 100 hamlets by the end of March 2007.

The programme was implemented through the local panchayat and managed by a village energy committee formed for the purpose.

On energy generation from municipal solid waste, he said projects had been commissioned in Vijayawada and Hyderabad. "We are studying the feasibility proposals of various municipalities" and about 10 more would be started this year.

Accompanied by the Chairman and Managing Director of the Tamil Nadu Energy Development Agency, K. Allaudin, he visited some of the wind farms, the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, a bio-fuel research station and a couple of villages that had renewable energy projects in the district.

He said that while Tamil Nadu already had about 2,900 MW of installed wind power capacity, including nearly 1,100 MW in the Palghat Pass areas, another 1,000 MW was expected to come up in the State this year.

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