The Prime Minister?s Council on climate change has dropped the key financing strategy of levying cess on coal used for thermal generation to fund the country?s solar power mission despite opposition from the power and coal ministries.

The Cabinet on November 24 had cleared the Jawaharlal Nehru Solar Mission and extended the target date of producing 20,000 mw of grid interactive solar power from 2020 to 2022.

Official of the ministry of new and renewable energy (MNRE) said the initial allotment of Rs 4,337 crore is much less than what the mission needs. SP Gon Chowdhury, managing director of West Bengal Green Energy Development Corporation Ltd (WBGEDCL), said the Planning Commission recommended an allocation of Rs 90,000 crore for the mission. If it is spread over 12 years, it works out to Rs 7,500 crore annually.

Although the country currently generates 200 mw of solar power, it pushes only 4 mw to the grid?2 mw from West Bengal and 1 mw each from Karnataka and Maharashtra. “We have a long way to go and subsidy is a crucial aspect for it,” said Gon Chowdhury.

Sourabh Sen, co-chairman of Astonfield Renewable Resources Ltd, which has proposed investment of $2 billion in the green power sector in the next two years, said, “The road map of the mission is not yet very clear to us. Maybe after meeting with the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change and the ministry of new and renewable energy we may find an approach to the mission,” Sen said.

“So far we have come to know that there will be a convergence of the state and the central tariff and the CERC (Central Electricity Regulatory Commission) will be the only authority to fix tariffs. Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd will be the only designated authority to buy solar power,” Sen said.

Sen said there was a proposal of raising the solar photovoltaic generation tariff from Rs 15 to Rs 17.50. Meanwhile, Chowdhury said with the key-funding proposal dropped, the government might not be in a position to offer a tariff more than Rs 15. This tariff might not be lucrative to investors like Reliance Solar, Moser Baer, Astonfield Renewable, Upper Solar, who have proposed solar power plants adding up to 1,190 mw (600 mw in Gujarat, 300 mw in Andhra Pradesh, 200 mw in Rajasthan and 90 mw in West Bengal), because the cost of photovoltaic solar generation is also Rs 15 at present.