Success not guaranteed until finances, processes and systems are detailed
New Delhi, 23 November 2009: Greenpeace welcomed the Government’s ambitious Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM), which was released today, a few days before the Climate summit at Copenhagen.
If India were to harness solar power, we would be able to meet a significant amount of our energy needs.
Commenting on the fact that the JNNSM – India’s first ever solar energy plan – is finally official, Sidddharth Pathak, Climate and Energy Policy officer from Greenpeace India said, “We welcome the formulation of the JNNSM from vision to action. The JNNSM underlines the Government’s intention to give a boost to solar energy and is a purposeful step by India towards climate change mitigation“.
The Solar Mission forms a part of the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) and has an ambitious target of achieving 20,000MW solar power by 2022. An analysis done by Greenpeace shows that the JNNSM plan could ensure an annual reduction of 434 million tons of CO2 emissions every year by 2050 based on the assumption that solar will replace fossil fuels.
“With the release of the JNNSM, the Indian Government has categorically shown that it is pro-actively acting on climate change and moving away from a carbon-intensive, business-as-usual scenario. This puts pressure on the developed countries to act and commit their ambitious GHG emission reduction targets at Copenhagen”, said Pathak.
The JNNSM however, does not contain details on several factors, including the financing of the solar plan. “The document lacks specific details on the sources of finance, which is critical to a successful implementation”, cautioned Pathak.
Currently, India is the fourth largest emitter of CO2 in the world with 1852.9 Mn. tonnes (Mt) per annum while the US spews 6963.8 Mt CO2 per annum (1). Preliminary calculations by Greenpeace show that on the basis of the NAPCC alone, India is on the pathway to deviate its GHG emissions by 12-18%, with a further potential to deviate GHG emissions by nearly 35% with more ambitious measures.
If India delivers on the JNNSM, further supportive action from Developed countries could ensure a huge uptake in renewable energy, create jobs, trigger high technology diffusion, and help with poverty alleviation in the country while contributing to the fight against climate change. “India has put its unilateral plan on the table. If developed countries meet their obligation of providing finance under the climate negotiations, India could further build on the JNNSM and boost its action on climate change”, opined Pathak.
Note to editors:
(1) World Resources Institute, 2005
Power plants = energy injustice, farmers protest against coal power in Delhi
100 Protesters lodge complaints at the Social Justice Ministry, in New Delhi
Delhi, November 18, 2009: On the eve of the winter parliament session, more than 100 farmers and young people representing all eleven districts in Vidarbha, held a protest at the doorstep of the Ministry of Social Justice to highlight the injustice of the energy sector in their region and country. Carrying banners and lanterns and singing songs of revolution, they queued up to file their grievances on electricity poverty with this ministry. “We have waited long enough for electricity to reach us. We don’t believe that the current system will ever deliver us power. Even living next to a coal plant means nothing, I still get less than 12 hours of power in day”, says Ravi Gavai, Maharashtra Yuva Parishad. “That’s why I am here to ask Mukul Vasnik if he thinks this is justice?!
The group, in a meeting with Mukul Vasnik, social justice minister and elected MP from the Vidarbha region, urged him to champion their cause to a continuous supply of electricity. They demanded that he ensure that there was a process initiated to ensure decentralized energy that ‘empowered’ them was immediately initiated. “The power ministry plans to build more large polluting power plants that take people’s land and pollute their water and harm their health, but all the power from the plants goes to cities and industries,” said Maitree Dasgupta, Climate and Energy campaigner, Greenpeace India, who is helping the group. “We believe that Mukul Vasnik can and should raise this issue as ultimately this is social injustice. We trust he can champion people’s needs”, she added.
protesters in Delhi take a stand against coal
Frustrated by the neglect of the government the villagers conducted an electricity survey from 50 Vidarbha villages which they presented to the Social Justice office. The survey highlighted that in spite of being declared as an electrified village most of the power generated is diverted towards electrifying the cities leaving the villages with a bare minimum of 8 to 10 hours a day and at odd times when it is least useful.
Rural development Minister CP Joshi, acknowledged that the energy injustice is affecting rural development specially agriculture. He assured that if the MNRE (Ministry of New and Renewable energy) proposes to develop renewable energy projects in Rural India, his ministry would support the implementation of the same.
Greenpeace, yesterday, released a report – “Still Waiting” – which reveals that despite growth in electricity generation – and increasing carbon emissions – the rural poor continue to be deprived of electricity. The report challenges the government’s energy model and recommends a decentralised energy mix as a solution to overcome social injustice and mitigate climate change.
Stop Energy Injustice - a protester in Delhi
The grid-based centralised electricity generation system failed to meet the basic energy needs of the majority of the country’s rural population. “Although the Government justifies demand for a larger carbon space to enable development of the poor, it must be noted that the centralised grid-based electricity is not delivering to our rural population”, said Maitree Dasgupta, Climate & Energy campaigner, Greenpeace India. “It is time for an energy revolution, and decentralized energy is at the heart of it”, she concluded.
An energy injustice exists within India that is obstructing our economic and social development. Greenpeace believes the solution to this injustice lies in developing an infrastructure of decentralised energy generation systems that can be managed by the communities they serve, utilising renewable energy technologies. One such example can be found in the state of Uttar Pradesh, where in a small, quiet village in Bundelkhand, an energy revolution is taking place.
At first glance, Rampura could almost be any other village in India: long flat fields of clodded earth, cattle resting in the shade of uneven houses with heavy-lidded eyes. Just one of the many forgotten villages in which election promises are rarely kept. But Rampura’s unassuming appearance belies a poineering reality, for this village is home to India’s first community-run solar power plant.
Ghyanshyam Singh Yadav is the leader of the village solar committee, the democratically elected village body responsible for managing the plant and the electricity it supplies. He’s also a farmer, a big, gentle man who rests his hand on the plant’s solar panels as he explains their story.
“Since before Independence we had always used kerosene lamps,” he recalls. “All the villages around us had electricity, it was only ours that didn’t. We approached politicians, district managers, the electricity board… the politicians would always agree when it was election time, then later they would refuse. Until 1997 there was absolutely nothing here, not even roads or a school.”
The complete lack of infrastructure meant that the villagers were cut off from society. “We had no idea of the outside world as we had no newspapers, let alone news channels. Over 90% of the villagers were illiterate,” Ghyanshyam says.
A number of development programmes and the formation of a development committee in the village lead to a small school and some basic water and sanitation structure, but the day would still end for residents when the sun went down. In 2008, the residents heard of a Norwegian company called Scatec Solar looking to conduct an electricity project with a village in India. Ghyanshyam and his colleagues jumped at the chance, offering the company land on which to build their plant and forming a solar committee. The 8.7KW peak plant was constructed in a mere 28 days, a collaborative effort between Scatec, the villagers and an Indian organisation called Development Alternatives.
“It’s a pity that another country had to come and help us, and our own government sat by for years and didn’t,” Ghyanshyam says. “But we’re not ashamed. We worked 24 hours a day for a month to put this together, and we’re proud of it even though it came from outside.”
The solar power plant that has made such a difference to the residents’ lives is surprisingly small: three neat rows of photovoltaic panels that slant towards the sun, a control room with a row of batteries and a monitoring room to gauge the success of the project. The area is gated to protect it from accidental damage by untrained villagers, but the gate is open most of the time and children play in the compound, ducking in and out of the panels. In the nine months the project has been running, the only (minor) damage has come from one particularly voracious storm, and there has not been one minute of power failure – a stark contrast to the frequent power cuts and poor quality supply that plagues the surrounding, grid-connected villages.
Once Rampura’s plant was set up, villagers who wanted an electricity supply paid to have a connection made to their house, and so a small, decentralised mini-grid feeds 44 homes and several streetlights. Although power generation by solar is free, the villagers pay a small amount for the electricity they use, which goes into a communal bank account in preparation for the mandatory battery replacement that will be required in a few years.
Still, the costs are often less than the villagers used to pay for the weak, smoky kerosene lamps that used to soot their walls. Bablu Singh Yadav, another of Rampura’s farmers, used to pay Rs. 250 a month for kerosene to light dinner for the family. When the electricity came, two CFLs cost him Rs. 60, provided a far better quality of light and could be turned on at any time. It’s hard to hear his explanation of this though, as the old black and white TV in the background is blaring the Mahabharat, watched avidly by his four daughters and their friends. Electricity use quickly progressed in Rampura, and Bablu holds one of the village’s few cable connections.
“I’ve suddenly got a better idea of what the world is like, “ he says, crediting the exposure with improving both his business and his knowledge of national politics. “We [men] used to come home from the fields, have a drink, go and talk and end up having a fight,” he recalls. “Now, we watch television and talk about politics.”
His girls are less shy too, he says – they’re always trying to copy wrestling moves they see on television. Now they have light to study by they’ve improved so much at school that he’s considering sending them away to complete their education.
Rampura’s female community has benefited in other ways too, which are specific to this type of decentralised model. Rajeshwari Devi is gorgeous, bright and at just 19 is the second in charge of the solar committee. I ask her what her husband thinks.
“He doesn’t think much,” she laughs. “But he thinks its great. It’s important to keep developing. People stay at home together in the evenings now, which is much nicer, and the streetlights mean people feel safer if they want to go out after dark. But I think the next generation will really benefit.” She tucks her little boy under her arm. Her daughter is in class V and has just started lessons on the village’s one computer, donated by the German company, and also powered by the solar power plant.
Down the hill from Rajeshwari’s house a steady roar fills the otherwise quiet path. When Rampura’s mini-grid was set up, Balwan Singh Yadav saw an opportunity to boost income and bought a small flour-mill. His teenage son operates it now, flour on his school trousers.
“I saw an opportunity for us to have an edge over other villages,” he explains. “As we have electricity for 24 hours a day and they don’t. We used to have to travel to grind our wheat, but now other villages come here, and outsource to us.”
The money the family makes from the flour mill is not as significant as that they make from agriculture, but it’s certainly more reliable in the drought-hit Bundelkhand region. The steady flow of income has finally enabled Balwan’s family to move out of his brother’s house, and into a home of their own. In the central courtyard outside his wife scrubs their little daughter in the sunshine, then lies her down and kisses her feet.
The stark difference between Rampura and some of the other remote villages visited for this report is disheartening in one way, and brings hope in another. The assured supply of quality electricity is bringing all the development benefits so familiar to India’s city dwellers, but there is something else here too: the self-governance of the system has strengthened the community and instilled a sense of ambition and pride which is apparent throughout, from conversations with the residents right down to the absence of litter in the streets. Three families that left the village for the city before the solar plant was installed are now trying to move back – a refreshing and rare case of reverse-migration.
India’s villages are self-sufficient by their nature, and so a decentralised energy-generation system that allows their processes to continue unhindered by outside restraints will of course be beneficial. But self-sufficient is not the same as self-contained, and the pleasure the residents have in connecting with the rest of society through this electricity supply is clear. It is interesting to note that Ghyanshyam, the driving force behind the village’s solar power plant, has never heard of climate change: the decentralised system makes sense for the village on a local level alone.
“We wanted to do something historical with our village, and show others how a village can and should be,” he says. “We’ve gone from dark to light, and we want to inspire the rest of the country.”
In March 2009, Greenpeace India installed solar panels onto the roof of two schools in Jalka Village, Yavatmal district, Maharashtra. The village had come to the country’s attention when Rahul Gandhi used the example of Kalavati, a widow living without electricity in Jalka, as supporting evidence for India’s need to expand her nuclear power generation. Set up in a mere three days, the photovoltaic panels serve to both refute the need for the lengthy set-up times and implicated dangers of nuclear power plants, and also as a symbol of how decentralised renewable systems can provide energy solutions for rural communities. Six months later, the residents of Jalka gave their verdicts on the system.
Outside, crowds of men and women dance in the street to the boom of drums and jangling of pipes, raising clouds of dust and purple gulal into the air. It’s the last day of Dessara, but you wouldn’t know it to look at the children of Jalka. Inside the village primary school, the children are sitting quietly, heads bent in concentration under the steady whir of electric fans.
“Attendance has really improved since the fans were installed,” says Joti Hirurkar, a teacher at Jalka Zilla Prishad School. “Instead of fidgeting and running around, the students are more comfortable and sit quietly and study. Before the fans, kids also used to fall sick a lot due to the heat. That’s not happening anymore.”
Before the installation of the solar panels, the primary school had an electricity connection that afforded them a single light bulb, an mismatching and unnecessary cost in an establishment that was closed at night time but experienced temperatures of up to 50 degrees Celsius during the day. The secondary school, which is semi-private, uses its solar panels to run the village’s only computer. A local electrician maintains both systems, at a small cost to the schools.
Three-quarters of the houses in Jalka are connected to the centralised power grid – the remainder of the population live below the poverty line and can’t afford it – but the power supply is unreliable, inflicting seven to eight hours of power cuts per day at the time of writing. Vidharba region, of which Yavatmal is a constituent district, generates a surplus of the power it needs through its four thermal power plants, but over half is transmitted to other states.
And the villagers’ power requirements extend further than lights or fans, with more immediate financial consequences.
“The power cut is during the day, so we have no power to irrigate our crops,” says Rudeshwar, a panchayat member and farmer. “There’s water in the well, but no way to spread it. Drinking water should be pulled up by electric pumps too, but we’re having to use hand pumps instead.”
Most Jalka farmers grow cotton , which needs at least an hour of rain every eight days to flourish, something the residents say can no longer be relied upon.
“The monsoon this year has been particularly bad,” continues Rudeshwar, “though generally rainfall has been decreasing over recent years. And the weaker the monsoon, the more power we’ll need for irrigation. This year, I think we will have lost 90% of our crop. We’re waiting to see if the government will waive our loans.”
In fact, this year’s monsoon has brought the lowest rainfall in the Vidharba region of the last ten years. Yavatmal district, previously known as the ‘suicide belt’ of the region, has been the worst hit.
However, so satisfied are Jalka’s residents with the uninterrupted power supply to the school’s fans that they have sent a written proposal to the panchayat samiti requesting that solar panels be placed on the roof of every house.
“We see the solar panels working perfectly. In our village, the electricity is not working perfectly. Therefore we would like all power to come from panels like this,” reiterates Anasua, the panchayat president. “Everybody signed the letter, though we haven’t heard anything back yet. Rudeshwar also met the BJP candidate and told him the same thing, but we’re waiting for his visit also.”
As an alternative to photovoltaic panels on every roof, Jalka’s residents are also open to the idea of a community solar power plant, which would spread electricity through a decentralised grid. This might be better, they think, because it would allow the responsibility of the panels’ maintenance to be shared. They’ve also put thought into how the costs will be covered.
“The government paid for 90% of the cost of our electric water pump. We paid for the other 10% and are paying for the warden to take care of it, and the electricity we use through it,” explains Rudeshwar. “We’d be willing to follow a similar scheme with solar.”
“Decentralised systems would be a good thing for the whole village, ” concludes Joti Hirurkar. “Particularly for small businesses that do things like flour grinding – these get hit very hard by the power shortages. As for our school, next we’d like to use solar to power a computer.”
Mundolav Village in Ajmer District, Rajasthan, is connected to the electricity grid, but this doesn’t mean the 400 families who live there enjoy much of the benefits of electricity. Scheduled power cuts in this rural area mean they have access to power for only three hours during the day, and four hours in the evening. For the rest of their light the residents use kerosene lamps and candles, but there is no power alternative for irrigating their crops. The Barefoot College in nearby Tilonia has distributed three solar lamps to Mundolav: two are used to run a night school for children, and the third is used by the local midwife.
Danwarsingh Rajput, 35, Teacher
“We have night schools here as during the day children have to take the animals to find grazing, and so can’t come for classes. So we have school from 7pm to 10pm every night, on the verandah of my house. Twenty-eight children come between 1st and 5th standard and we teach them everything – reading and writing, mathematics, geography.
“Before we got the solar lanterns we were using kerosene lamps, which didn’t give enough light and strained the eyes. Children would have to sit very close to the lamp and would get bothered and bitten by the insects that came to the light. They’re very smoky too, which would make us cough and give breathing problems. The solar lamps are clean and give out more light, so we can sit further away from the insects. They don’t blow out like the kerosene lamps either, which means that we can walk the children home after school when it’s late at night and not as safe. So more children come now, and we can have school more often – because the solar lamps don’t go out in wind or rain like the kerosene lamps, now we have classes in all seasons.”
Hagami Devi, 40, Midwife
“I’ve been a midwife for ten years now; before I earned a labourer’s wage. The community selected me and sent me to Barefoot College for training to help the village women in their pregnancy. I like it: there are no other health facilities in rural places like this and so the women rely on me.
“Every day I do the rounds of the pregnant women in the village. In the evening I take the solar light to examine them by. Some are very nervous because it is their first baby, and having the light helps them feel calmer. We have a little electricity in this village, but what if there is a delivery in the middle of the night? Kerosene lamps are dim and I can’t see the situation of the child properly. They’re also a fire hazard. So having the solar lantern is a big help.
“In my ten years as a midwife I’ve delivered 200-300 children by the light of this solar lantern. This month alone it has helped me deliver eight healthy babies.”
Gajanand Vaishanav, unemployed resident
Gajanand Vaishanav can’t speak very much, but through his gestures and the words of the other villagers he communicated his story.
The electrical wires that connect the village are low quality, he says, as contractors take advantage of the residents’ low level of education to purchase cheap wires and keep the surplus money. During the rainy season the walls of the houses sometimes become electrified and consequently accidents happen – three years ago, three children died from shocks imparted by faulty wiring.
During the rainy season ten years ago, an electrical wire fell onto Gajanand’s head and electrocuted him. He didn’t die, but spent two weeks in hospital and can no longer speak articulately. His hands are frozen as claws and one is withered; his blood circulation is poor and his limbs are thin and useless. Where the electrical wire touched his head no hair grows and there is a stripe of scarred scalp. The majority of his days are spent lying on a mat in the house of his elderly mother as his condition means he can’t work, and has never married. He is in constant pain.
Dr Prakash Lalwani talks about the health risks of coal power
Dr Prakash Lalwani, M.B.B.S, M.S, is a general physician and the founder of Wakewar Hospital in Parli, where he has been practicing for eight years. Less than 2km from Parli town is Parli Thermal Power Station, a 920MW coal-fired power station that has been operating – and expanding – for nearly forty years. The plant in its current form uses 1100 metric tonnes of coal per day, producing 3500 metric tonnes of fly ash per day and an unspecified amount of waste gases. Construction work for another 250MW unit is underway. Like many other coal-fired thermal power plants, Parli TPS has been criticised for its lack of proper waste management, which means much of its waste fly ash is blown from the dump to surrounding areas. We asked Dr Lalwani about the health consequences of living in these areas.
What are the health problems associated with living near Parli Thermal Power Station?
There are three major types of health problems associated. The first are lung problems. [Ash consists of] very minor particles, which go inside the lungs and block the bronchioles, and cause Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases (C.O.P.D), bronchial asthma, things like that. Bronchial asthma is seen more often. Obviously pollution is not the only factor causing lung disease, but C.O.P.D lowers the resistance of the lungs to secondary infections such as Tuberculosis. A physician in this area performed a survey that showed a seven-fold increase in lung disease in our area over a five-year period. This is a result of air pollution, which is produced by the thermal power station and now also by the cement factories which have started up around it. The lung conditions are definitely associated with this ash.
The second type is skin problems – chronic skin diseases have definitely increased here. All the people who work on the fly ash ponds have skin problems – eczema, allergic dermatitis. As the ash is mixed with water they can get fungal infections too. The chances of skin cancer are there too, in the long term.
The third thing is allergies. I haven’t performed clinical studies, but I’ve been seeing these problems in my patients for the last ten years, and the number of patients with these diseases has increased. If you talk to any physician over here they will also tell you the same thing.
How widespread are these problems?
The chances of developing diseases are of course higher for those who are in very close contact with the ash, but there is a risk for the people who stay near it too. If it’s not the rainy season, the ash is like a fog, covering a 20km area [around the power plant]. If you go up to my roof [here in the city] and mark a 1ft by 1ft square, by morning it will be studded with these particles. It stops for 8 hrs after it rains, but apart from that it is constant, and it’s worst in the summer.
The problem is that chronic diseases caused by this pollution don’t affect people immediately. It is a slow process. If I work in these conditions in 2009, I may only develop the diseases in 2014, for example. So it’s hard to hold the contractors responsible.
The drinking water for this area comes from a small open dam not more than 2km by air from the power plant, so I would say the water is definitely being affected. The vegetables we eat are also polluted by the chemicals contained within the fly ash.
What could improve the situation?
Legally, this thermal power plant should be eight kilometres away from the city. It is just touching now. Twenty-five years back, before the city expanded, it was still just two kilometres away. We understand it might not be feasible to shift the power station, but at least when they are building new plants they should be built a proper distance away from the city! It’s cheaper for them to build the power stations close to one another, as they won’t need as many managerial staff to run them. There’s also ample manpower and water near the cities.
The transportation of the materials is also not proper. Sprinkling is also required – legally – for the transportation of coal, but it is being transported dry, in open containers. Ash should be [transported] mixed with water, but it’s not being. If you come in summer season you will see the air looks like this is a hill station. But this is not a fog. It is the presence of that ash in the surroundings. For cement factories etc., the ash is directly taken from the power station site, with no water involved.
The people who work with the fly ash wear no protection – no boots, no face masks. Lack of awareness may be one reason for this, but the main reason is poverty. If a worker is earning Rs.100-150 per day, how will he pay for these things after he has provided for his family? So it should be the responsibility of the contractors, or the government, to see that they are given the proper protection.
What’s being done?
Nothing. Every 3-4 months, the local people hold a protest. On paper, you’ll find that there are boards displaying the amount of air pollution, like they display temperature in some places. But paper is the only place you’ll find these boards – they haven’t been implemented in reality.
How is the power situation here?
The power situation is the worst. At least what we demanded was: if we are giving electricity to half of Maharashtra, at least we should not have power cuts. We are suffering all types of losses. At least give us the benefit [of full power supply]. In towns, we have 6-10 hours of powercuts per day, depending on the season. In my farm, which is in a rural area just beside the thermal power station, I get power for only 4-6 hours per day. We use gensets instead, which run on diesel. Yet the leaves of the small amount of sugarcane I grow are grey with ash, even in rainy season.
Some people you know are asking the Prime Minister to act on climate change now and put a Renewable Energy Law in place by 2010. Will he listen? It all depends on whether you ask him too. Go on, save the climate, be a hero.
Fed up with their Governments empty talk on climate change, six Greenpeace activists did something to a coal-power plant in 2007. They were arrested and thrown into jail. Two years later, this is their story, in their own words.
Alibaug Taluka, India – Close to a thousand villagers stood for hours in the formation of a life-size human windmill near Khidki village in Alibag, in what could well be the largest protest for renewable energy in India to date.
July 30, 2009: Over 1000 residents from villages in the Alibag taluka in Maharashtra gather to take part in a giant human art formation of a windmill, to voice their opposition to coal fired power plants planned in the region. The Maharashtra government is considering plans to approve 10,000 MW of new coal power plants by the Reliance, TATA, ISPAT and Patni groups. 60% of India's power currently comes from coal, the major cause of climate change. India needs to shift away from a fossil fuel based energy pathway to greener sustainable energy options.
They were demanding that the Maharashtra Government drop plans to build 10,000MW coal-fired thermal power plants in the region and explore renewable energy instead. The villagers said they were committed to fight the acquisition of their fertile land for coal-based power plants.
“We believe that the energy planned from these coal plants is dirty. It can come instead from clean alternatives like wind and solar energy, and by using energy more efficiently. We will not give up our land and our future to these mega power plants that will pollute our air, land, and water. We will not allow them to ruin our children’s future by adding to the problem of climate change,” said Dr Vishnu P. Mhatre of the Naugaon Sangharsh Samiti, one of the organisations fighting for clean energy here.
The community is opposing plans to set up thermal power plants over 8,500 acres of fertile land. The companies involved are the Tata Power Company Limited (1,200MW) and the Maharashtra Energy Generation Limited, a Reliance subsidiary, (4,000MW) at Shahpur in Alibag. The Patni group (500MW) and the Ispat group (2,000MW) want to set up their plants in the adjacent Medekhad Khadi.
For more than four years, the villagers have been resisting attempts by the government and the companies to acquire their land. “We do not oppose production of energy. But, we strongly demand that the Government of India change its energy pathway and move towards decentralised renewable energy, which will be used locally for agro-based industries and domestic needs,” said Satish Londhe, a resident of Alibag and state coordinator of the Shramik Mukti Dal.
To prove their solution-oriented approach, the citizens later joined in setting up a wind station. Admiral Ramdas, a Magsaysay awardee and a resident of Alibag, inaugurated the “Citizens’ Wind Monitoring Station” where the residents would record the area’s wind potential through an anemometer. This would show that the region has huge potential for wind energy, and challenge the government’s inaction in investing in alternate energies.
“Policymakers in the central and state governments need to explore the possibility of renewable resources like the wind, the sun, and other agents before rushing to coal for energy. In the current environment of global concern over climate change, we must also look critically at the operational efficiency of our power plants and increase energy efficiency in all sectors. This will ensure a dramatic reduction in our energy demand,” Ramdas asserted.
Maitree Dasgupta, Climate Campaigner with Greenpeace India, said: “This protest is a sign of popular opposition fomenting against coal in India, which will only grow. This not a fight against growth or development. It is just the opposite. It is a fight for building energy infrastructure for the future instead of relying on dinosaur technologies. India can get 35% of its power from renewable energy by 2030. We have the ability and technical capacity; we only need the political will.”
Greenpeace India is demanding that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh put in place a National Renewable Energy Bill no later than 2010, which would enable a shift towards a more sustainable energy pathway. This implies that the draft bill be made public this year for debate before placing it for parliamentary approval. It would also provide a framework for the Solar Mission and show that India is serious about the mission. More than 50,000 Indians have already signed Greenpeace India petitions demanding a response on this from Manmohan Singh.
