By Vinit Wahi / NEW DELHI
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has decided to do away with the mandatory charging of additional lease rent of Rs 30,000 per MW for wind power projects. This step is expected to boost the investment in wind power projects and will help in providing clean and green energy at cheaper rate.
In a review meeting Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar took a conscious decision to relax the condition of charging the lease rent of Rs. 30,000/- per MW for wind power projects. He said that it is expected that this step will boost the investment in wind power projects and will help in providing wind power at cheaper rate.
“The government envisages to meet maximum energy requirement by tapping renewal energy resources and, to achieve the target of clean energy in a time bound manner, various policies and regulations are being constantly updated.”, said the Environment minister.
Currently, to establish wind power project over forest land, the existing procedure requires payment of mandatory charges for compensatory afforestation and Net Present value (NPV). In addition to mandatory charges, the wind power companies had to pay additional lease rent of 30,000 per MW. This additional cost is not mandatory for other renewal energy projects such as solar power and hydel electric projects. Additional cost for generation of clean energy through wind power, in turn escalate the per unit cost of power at consumer level.