AREAS Invites Proposals for Decentralised RE Solutions for Rural Applications

AREAS has proposed to promote innovative decentralised renewable energy (RE) solutions for rural livelihood applications through financial assistance.

The Association of Renewable Energy Agencies of States (AREAS) has proposed to promote innovative decentralised renewable energy (RE) solutions for rural livelihood applications through financial assistance.

In line with this, the agency has invited proposals from innovators, technology developers, manufacturers, etc. that have developed and demonstrated innovative decentralised RE solutions for different rural livelihood applications.

The last date for submission of the proposals is October 19, 2020. The proposals must include a brief technical description of the Decentralised Renewable Energy solution, the details of the firm, project costing, etc for review under the scheme.

The Association of Renewable Energy Agencies of States or AREAS was formed on the initiative of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) to provide a platform to state nodal agencies (SNAs) of renewable energy to interact and learn from each others experiences and also share their best practices and knowledge regarding technologies and schemes/ programs.

Earlier in the week, we had reported that the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) intends to engage reputed consultants/experts to undertake the evaluation of Off-grid and Decentralised Solar PV Applications Programme Phase-III. The scheme consists of the following three components:

1. Installation of 3,00,000 numbers of solar street lights throughout the country, with special emphasis on areas where there is no facility for street lighting systems through grid power, North Eastern States and Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected districts,
2. (Installation of aggregate capacity of 100 MW of off-grid solar power plants of individual size up to 25 kWp in areas where grid power has not reached or is not reliable. Such plants are mainly aimed at providing electricity to schools, hostels, panchayats, police stations, and other public service institutions,
3. Providing 25,00,000 numbers of solar study lamps in the North Eastern States and LWE affected districts to school-going children, up to the level of SSC, in backward and remote areas in North-Eastern states and LWE affected districts.

Prior to that, we had reported that the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), had invited Expression of Interest (EOI) from IPP, OEM, Technology Provider, Technology Licenser for exploration /availability of systems /solutions based on RE Sources /energy storage sources or a combination of these two which can be deployed under hostile climatic conditions for meeting energy requirement in remote Himalayan areas.