The Hindu Business Line : AP to set up micro hydel projects in tribal areas

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Hyderabad Feb. 11 The Andhra Pradesh Government has decided to establish 16 micro hydel projects, each of 1 MW or more, in the identified tribal areas for meeting the energy needs of tribals.

Addressing a CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) conference on Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) here recently, Ms Gayatri Ramachandran, Director General, Environment Protection Training and Research Institute (EPTRI) said the State was taking up a range of energy programmes.

These include solar energy (interior village electrification projects), Biomass (in which Andhra Pradesh is the leader in India), Biofuels (tree-borne non-edible oils), energy from waste and the micro hydel projects.

Ms Ramachandran said CDM has been identified as one of the instruments to achieve the goal of the Kyoto Protocol, that the industrialised nations need to reduce their combined greenhouse gas emissions by at least 5.2 per cent as compared to 1990 levels by the period 2008-2012.

Money matters

In his address, Mr T. Chatterjee, Principal Secretary, Transport Roads & Buildings, stated that globalisation of carbon tonnage has become the order of the day. He stated that financial viability is as important as environmental viability of a project and mentioned that India and China should start thinking of CDM as a viability gap funding.

He emphasised that CDM was not restricted to carbon credit policy. Carbon emission equivalents have not come down, they have only gone up across the globe.

Mr Ajeya Kallam, Managing Director, APSFC, stated that to take CDM projects to a meaningful conclusion, the actual realization of money by CDM project implementers is very vital.

He mentioned that having registered the projects and obtaining Certified Emissions Reductions (CER), industry can trade these CERs with either Governments of Annex 1 countries under Kyoto protocol, deal with carbon fund managers or interact and market to corporates in EU.

The two-day conference was also addressed by several representatives from the industry and experts in the subject, according to a press release from CII.

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