Ministry of Coal and Ministry of New & Renewable Energy decided to work together for promotion of green energy. During  secretary-level joint meeting between the two ministries, it was decided that Ministry of  New & Renewable Energy will provide technical, policy & capacity building support and Ministry of  Coal will provide land, capital and undertake implementation of solar energy, green hydrogen and  other renewable energy projects.

The central public sector undertakings of Ministry of Coal, Coal India Limited, NLCIL and SCCL have already embarked upon a net zero plan in furtherance of the Panchamrit targets. Over 1600 MW solar Energy generation capacity have been installed. Work on another 500 MW solar projects is at different stages.

In the high-level meeting, it was decided that coal companies have de-coaled and surplus land masses and such land can be offered for setting up of green hydrogen projects by the private investors. Coal CPSEs also have de-coaled land mass in the open cast mines where there is naturally available water storage reservoir and head of average 100 meter height. By construction of top reservoir, such de-coaled mines can be converted into pump storage projects. It was decided to work faster to set up such projects.

Coal CPSEs have huge land mass in the form of overburden dumps which can be put to use for setting up of the solar projects. Therefore,  about 85 residential colonies across coal bearing areas with a housing stock of about 50,000 houses. It was decided to undertake full assessment and to cover all the government buildings and houses with roof top solar in Mission Mode.

Ministry of New and Renewable Energy will support Ministry of Coal and its CPSEs of capacity building training of engineers, technicians and other functionaries through National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE).

It was also decided that suitable knowledge partnership through IIT Roorkee, Solar Energy Corporation of India and other resource agencies associated with MNRE shall also be provided.

 CPSEs under Ministry of Coal will create a generation capacity of about 12GW by year 2030. Ministry of Coal is in the process of identification of about 10 patches of land of more than 300 acres each so as to offer to private investors for setting up of green hydrogen projects under the policy of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

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BY/RKP

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