India's Odisha may spend USD 452m on green power capacity by 2017 - report

Aug 10, 2012 - India's state of Odisha, or Orissa, may pour INR 25 billion (USD 452m/EUR 368) in some 150 MW of solar, 100 MW of wind and 100 MW of biomass power installations in the five years to 2017, daily Business Standard said.

The newspaper cited state science and technology secretary D N Gupta as saying that the state regulator had launched new rules requiring state utilities to source 5% of the power they sell from renewables through own generation assets or the purchase of renewable energy certificates.

Earlier this year the Odisha Renewable Energy Development Agency (OREDA) said that the state's renewable energy potential stood at 16,230 MW, with solar power potential alone estimated at 14,000 MW. The state can install up to 1,700 MW of wind power, 350 MW of biomass, 160 MW of small hydropower and 20 MW municipal waste-to-energy facilities. Yet all that potential remains largely untapped as Odisha currently has only 57 MW of operating small hydropower plants, 13 MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems and a 20-MW biomass power plant.

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