Odisha State Budget Provisions Rs 50 Crore to Build Transmission Infra for RE

In the recently presented state Budget in the assembly, the Odisha Government has set out Rs 50 crore for the development of a green energy evacuation corridor. The Budget was presented by Odisha Finance Minister, Niranjan Pujari and in the amount is allocated for the corridor in which renewable energy projects will be built to generate green electricity that will be evacuated and supplied to different corners of Odisha.

The Finance Minister has also allocated an additional Rs 50 crore towards Odisha Renewable Energy Development Fund. The fund is meant for accelerated development of green energy in Odisha.

The Finance Minister held in his Budget speech, “Climate change is the most pressing issue of our times and de-carbonisation of the energy sector is a key component of our government’s action plan to mitigate the adverse consequences of it.”

The government is also launching a new scheme to promote the use of energy efficient appliances in the households under the Chief Minister’s Energy Conservation Programme (CMECP).  The state government has offered Rs 250 crore for this new scheme in the budget.

Odisha presently has an installed renewable energy capacity of 627 MW and its hydropower power comes to about 2160 MW. A recent report by iFOREST, an environmental pressure group, held that Odisha can generate 1,50,000 MW of clean power employing merely 2 per cent of wasteland in the state.

“As per our assessment, Odisha’s renewable energy potential is as good as that of Karnataka. MNRE says Odisha’s solar potential is 25,000 mw. However, our findings say the potential is 1.5 lakh mw. It can be achieved using only 2% of the wasteland,” said Chandra Bhushan, CEO and President of iFOREST.

Last December, the Odisha government launched its Renewable Energy Policy 2022 to promote renewable energy. The objective of the new policy is to attract investments in the sector, with a focus on new RE avenues such as green hydrogen, green ammonia, floating solar, wind energy etc. Through the new policy, Odisha wants to achieve 10,000 MW of renewable energy by 2030.