Ministry of New and Renewable Energy or MNRE is a ministry of the Government of India. The ministry is currently headed by Piyush Goyal, a cabinet minister. The ministry was established as the Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources in 1992. It adopted its current name in October 2006.
The Ministry is mainly responsible for research and development, intellectual property protection, and international cooperation, promotion, and coordination in renewable energy sources such as wind power, small hydro, biogas, and solar power. The broad aim of the ministry is to develop and deploy new and renewable energy for supplementing the energy requirements of India.
The ministry is headquartered in Lodhi Road, New Delhi. According to the Ministry's 2012-2013 annual report, India has made significant advances in several renewable energy sectors which include, solar energy, wind power, and hydroelectricity.
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History
1970s energy crisis led to the establishment of the Commission for Additional Sources of Energy (CASE) in the Department of Science & Technology (India) in March 1981. CASE was responsible for formulation of policies and their implementation, creation of programmes for development of new and renewable energy and coordinating and intensifying R&D in the sector.
In 1982, a new department was created in the then Ministry of Energy, i.e., Department of Non-conventional Energy Sources (DNES). DNES incorporated CASE under its umbrella.
A decade later, in 1992, DNES became the Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Sources (MNES). In October 2006, the Ministry was re-christened as the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.
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Mission
The mission of the Ministry is to bring in Energy Security; Increase the share of clean power; increase Energy Availability and Access; improve Energy Affordability; and maximise Energy Equity.
Key functional area
The major functional area or Allocation of Business of MNRE are:
- Commission for Additional Sources of Energy (CASE);
- Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA);
- Integrated Rural Energy Programme (IREP);
- Research and development of Biogas and programmes relating to Biogas units;
- Solar Energy including Solar Photovoltaic devices and their development, production and applications;
- Programme relating to improved chulhas and research and development thereof;
- All matters relating to small/mini/micro hydel projects of and below 25 MW capacities;
- Research and development of other non-conventional/renewable sources of energy and programmes relating thereto;
- Tidal energy;
- Geothermal Energy;
- Biofuel: (i) National Policy; (ii) research, development and demonstration on transport, stationary and other applications; (iii) setting up of a National Bio-fuels Development Board and strengthening the existing institutional mechanism; and (iv) overall coordination.
Initiatives
- Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) - The objective of the mission is to establish India as a global leader in solar energy, by creating the policy conditions for its diffusion across the country as quickly as possible.
- National Biogas and Manure Management Programme (NBMMP)
- Solar Lantern Programme LALA
- Solar thermal energy Demonstration Programme
- Remote Village Lighting Programme
- National Biomass Cookstoves Initiative (NBCI)
- National Offshore Wind Energy Authority
Achievements
Power from renewables
Grid-based
As of October 2012, the Ministry was successful in deploying a total of 26266.96 Megawatt (MW) capacity of grid-based renewable energy. 18274.80 MW of which was from Wind power, 3451.49 MW from Small hydro Power, 2175.23 MW from Bagasse Cogeneration, 1226.60 MW from Biomass power, 1045.16 from Solar power (SPV), and the rest from Waste to Power.
Off-grid
During the same time period, the total deployment of an Off-grid based renewable energy capacity was about 787.53 MW. Of these, Biomass (non-bagasse) Cogeneration consisted of 416.94 MW, Biomass Gasifier was 138.05 MW, Waste to energy was 73.72 MW, SPV Systems (of less than 1 Kilowatt (kW)) capacity was 103.81 MW, and the rest from micro-Hydro and Wind power.
Remote village electrification
Under the leadership of MNRE, the total number of villages that were provided with the Renewable Energy Systems was 8846.
Other renewable energy systems
The total number of deployment of Family Biogas plant was 44.08 lakhs. And the total area that it covered with Solar water heating (SWH) systems was 4.47 Million m2.
Institutions and regional offices
The Ministry has 4 specialised technical institution. They are:-
- The Solar Energy Centre (SEC), located in Haryana.
- Centre for Wind Energy Technology (C-WET) in Chennai, Tamil Nadu
- The Sardar Swaran Singh National Institute of Renewable Energy (SSS-NIRE), near Jallandhar, Punjab.
- Alternate Hydro Energy Centre, located inside the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee campus.
It also has a specialised financial institution called the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA), in New Delhi. The agency provides term loans for renewable energy and energy efficiency projects.
The Ministry have 2 Regional Offices. One is located in Guwahati, Assam and the other one at Bhubaneshwar, Orissa. The Guwahati office has its functional jurisdiction in Northeast India including Sikkim, while the Bhubaneshwar office has it in Orissa and West Bengal.
State Nodal Agencies
The Ministry has established state nodal agencies in different states and union territories of India to promote and expand the growth of efficient energy use of renewable energy in their respective states. The primary objective of a state nodal agency under this ministry is to develop, co-ordinate, finance and promote research projects in the new and renewable energy field. It is also expected to devise programmes for research and development as well as applicative extensions of new and renewable energy sources.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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