The government is considering a regulation to make use of renewable energy mandatory for special economic zones (SEZ) to save on traditional fuel like coal and diesel. The Ministries of Commerce & Industry and New & Renewable Energy are working on the modalities for such a regulation.
?A regulation needs to be put in place making it mandatory for use of renewable energy in the SEZs, which would result in saving of energy. Every SEZ developer should create a mechanism for producing 1 KW (kilo watt) of renewable energy for one hectare of development in the SEZ,? D K Mittal, additional secretary in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, said at the seminar for encouraging use of renewable energy in the tax havens.
Every SEZ developer should appoint a person for production of energy through renewable sources, Mittal said, adding that ?we should keep a target of producing 10,000 KW of renewable energy in SEZs?. There are around 300 notified SEZs in the country and 20 are being developed as green SEZs.
During the seminar, organised by Export Promotion Council for EoUs and SEZs (EPCES), New and Renewable Energy secretary Deepak Gupta said ?it should be ensured that these buildings are constructed on green designs based on solar passive architecture concepts and become model of efficiency?.
More than 35 SEZ developers, including DLF Ltd, Unitech, Reliance Industries, Rehejas, Paharpur Business, Mahindra Worldcity Jaipur and Pearl City Food Court attended the seminar.
In order to facilitate use of renewable energy, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is in the process of collating the basic information required for using this energy and will suggest the procedure for claiming subsidies for such use to the Commerce Ministry, EPCES director general L B Singhal said. A single window mechanism should also be established by MNRE so that developers could receive the information quickly, he added.