The Centre will soon come up with a scheme that will enable people to have easy access to livelihood applications of distributed renewable energy (DRE) technology such as those using solar and wind energy, Union Power Minister RK Singh said on Thursday.

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"Our government is coming out with a new scheme for distributed applications of renewable energy (RE). There is already a lot of work happening on the ground and our scheme could benefit lakhs of families across the country," he said.

While speaking at the 'National Summit on Powering Sustainable Livelihoods', Singh said, "We will, however, need large scale-manufacturing and standardising of distributed applications of RE to lower prices and expand the sector. We have seen the potential of grid-scale solar power; India will scale up distributed applications of renewable energy for livelihoods. Just like we have a large programme on rooftop solar and solar irrigation, we will create a large programme for DRE livelihoods."

He also stressed that the government plans to make DRE livelihood equipment affordable.

Singh went on to talk about the role of banks in financing DRE livelihood applications. "If a family wants to own a solar dryer, they should be able to get financing from the banks – we will work towards it. Manufacturers and users of DRE for livelihoods are pioneers and now the government will scale it up to the next level," he said.

Meanwhile, reports suggest that clean tech can impact 37 million livelihoods in India's agriculture and textile sectors, presenting an opportunity of Rs 4 lakh crore.

Also read: Power Minister RK Singh says discoms should compensate customers for load-shedding

Abhishek Jain, Fellow and Director – Powering Livelihoods, CEEW, said, “With a programme like Powering Livelihoods, we are taking this clean energy transition to the masses and contributing to their incomes and livelihoods. By deploying more than 11,000 such technologies across India since the pandemic, we have shown the impact of clean-energy-powered livelihood technologies on enhancing and diversifying people’s incomes.”

Ananth Aravamundan, Sector Lead – Climate Action, Villgro, said, “Over a 15-year investment horizon, the clean tech product variants become more attractive than their grid alternatives."

(Edited by : Pradeep John)

First Published:May 18, 2023 11:23 PM IST