The government will soon come with a framework to make inter-State transmission of renewable energy free of cost, said Piyush Goyal, Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy Minister.

At an interaction organised by the Indian Women’s Press Corps, Goyal said, “The Central Government is coming out with a legal framework where all inter-State transmission of renewable energy will be at zero cost. I am urging States to also make intra-State transmission of renewable energy free of charge.”

He added that the government is creating an ‘enabling and overarching framework’ to make renewable energy viable for the common man.

The proposals will form a part of the new tariff policy that the Ministry for Power finalising.

The government has set a target of having 175,000 MW of power generation capacity from renewable energy sources by 2022.

Of this, 100,000 MW will come from solar power, 60,000 MW from wind and the remaining from other sources including bio-mass.

Asked about the work on the backend infrastructure to support the government’s renewable energy targets, the Minister said, “We have already started work on ₹38,000 crore worth of green energy corridors. I am asking States to come up with areas where we can expand renewable energy so that more transmission grids can be made.”

The Minister added that low-cost long tenor funds will be a big enabler to meet the renewable energy generation targets.

Emission targets

“The emissions targets are a matter of faith for us. They are going to happen. But we do believe that justice demands that polluters pay for it. Justice demands that countries who can afford it, support us in this effort when we are trying to bring 30 per cent of our people out of poverty,” he said.

While stressing that India is committed to cut down its emissions and increase renewable energy generation, Goyal said that focus has to remain on coal-based power for a country like India.

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