CII To Partner For Organizing Cst Workshop In Hyderabad To Boost Solar Energy In Telangana

United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) is implementing a Global Environment Facility (GEF) supported project ”Promoting business models for increasing penetration and scaling up of solar energy” in partnership with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) aiming to promote investment in Concentrated Solar Thermal (CST) technologies for industrial applications in the country.

The project is designed to complement MNRE’s CST programme by helping remove barriers associated with adoption of CST technologies through awareness generation, capacity building and innovative project financing solutions.

Since the amount of imported crude oil used in industrial sector in India is large (42% of the crude oil imported in 2014-15), use of solar energy for industrial process applications presents a significant opportunity for the country to address growing concerns of energy security and carbon emissions. CST technologies are amply suited for heating and cooling applications for industrial processes.

Availability of financing to the owners of industrial units plays a vital role in their successful transition towards renewable energy. Given the size of the market and the opportunities it presents, the GEF-UNIDO-MNRE project is preparing an innovative financial scheme to provide a single window system for accessing financial assistance. Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA), as the fund manager to the project, would support the beneficiaries by bundling MNRE’s subsidy and the loan at low interest rates (sub-vented by UNIDO project), thereby providing upfront access to 75% of project cost for application of these technologies.

A series of awareness generation workshops have been organized in several states of India (Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan) to spread awareness about the benefits and applicability of CST application and the support provided by GEF-UNIDO-MNRE project. The next workshop in the series is scheduled to begin at 09:30 hrs on 15 September 2016 at Hotel Taj Deccan in Hyderabad, Telangana.

The workshop is being organised in close cooperation with Telangana New and Renewable Energy Development Agency and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Representatives from industries in and around Hyderabad have been invited to learn about the adoption of CSTs in their industrial units.