IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2020 - 82

drudgery of women, and reduce pressure on forests,
besides other objectives [11].
The MNRE is one of the ministries reporting on the
"Gender Budgeting in Expenditure Profile" (Statement
13) that all Ministries and Departments are required to
prepare. The national biogas program is included in
the expenditure profile of the statement and is estimated at one billion Rupees (U.S.$14 million) for the
year 2019-2020.4
The Thalingi tribal settlement in the Amaravathy Forest Division of Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu, is a cluster of villages, which for years had no electricity because
they were six kilometers off the main road. The lack of
roads made the construction required for electricity generation difficult. Now, through the Nonconventional Energy and Rural Development (NERD) project initiated here,
the community has access to electricity generated
through biogas [5].

aims to encourage new storage technologies to combine
with the operation of wind and solar PV plants.
Together, onshore and offshore wind power employs
1.16 million people worldwide, up 1% from 2017. Most
wind jobs are found in a small number of countries,
although the concentration is less than in the solar PV
sector. China accounts for 44% of the global total and
Asia's 620 000 wind jobs make up about half the total.
India is the fourth highest for employment in the industry (after China, Germany and the United States), with
around 58 000 jobs [13]. The potential for women's
employment in the industry has been noted in several
studies, such as a U.S. Department of Energy study that
found 32% of those employed in the U.S. wind industry
in 2016 were women, which included 41% civil engineers
and 45% applied and field scientists. This indicates the
potential for women's employment in the industry in
India, provided existing gender barriers are addressed.

Wind Power

Small Hydropower

India has the fourth largest installed capacity of wind
power globally at about 37 GW [9], after the PRC, the
U.S., and Germany. The potential for wind power generation for grid interaction has been estimated at 103 GW
(taking sites having wind power density greater than
200 W/m2 at 80-m hub height with 2% land availability
in potential areas for setting up wind farms at
9 MW/km 2). Wind electric generators of unit sizes
between 225 kW and 2.6 MW have been deployed
across the country. The wind power potential is concentrated in seven or eight windy states. To facilitate the
interstate transmission of wind power, suitable provisions have been made in the tariff policy, waiving interstate transmission charges and losses for interstate sale
of wind and solar power. However, the sharing of charges of the evacuation and transmission facilities is a challenge that is being addressed for the full development of
the wind power potential in the country.
Wind and solar energy are variable sources of power.
Studies have revealed that solar and wind power are
almost complementary to each other, and hybridization of
two technologies would help in minimizing the variability.
Combining these two sources is also an optimal utilization
of the infrastructure, including land and transmission system. They may also require batteries and, in some cases,
have an engine as part of the system. A national windsolar hybrid policy was notified by the MNRE in May 2018,
with optional storage. The goal of the policy is to reach
wind-solar hybrid capacity of 10 GW by 2022. The policy

The promotion of small hydropower (SHP) is an important area to augment renewable energy in the total electricity mix. MNRE has the responsibility of developing
SHP projects up to 25-MW capacity per plant. The estimated potential for power generation from such plants is
20 000 MW. Most of the potential is in Himalayan states
as river-based projects and in other states on irrigation
canals. SHP plays a critical role in providing electrification to remote communities. The SHP program is driven
by private sector investments. The SHP program aims to
increase the current growth rate and scale up the total
installed capacity of SHP projects to reach more than
5000 MW by March 2022. As of August 2016, SHP projects aggregating to 4647 MW capacity have been set up
in various parts of the country, and approximately
500 MW of capacity are in various stages of implementation. Financial assistance of 125 000 (U.S.$1760)/kW is
provided by the Government of India for SHP projects.

4
Statement 13 reflects the respective beneficiary class identification in
order to highlight the quantum of public expenditure earmarked for i)
women specific programs (100% provision), and ii) pro-women allocations
(at least 30% provision) for gender neutral programs, in the budget provisions administered by Ministries and Departments.

Waste to Energy
MNRE is promoting a range of technology options for setting up projects for energy recovery from urban wastes.
Approximately 190-MW capacity has been installed,
amounting to 14.7% of installed off-grid capacity is now
from waste to energy systems [9]. While incineration and
bio-methanation are the most common technologies,
pyrolysis and gasification are also emerging as preferred
options. Major advantages for adopting technologies for
energy recovery from urban wastes are reducing the
quantity of waste, improving sanitation, and reducing
environmental pollution while generating substantial
quantities of energy. MNRE has also provided funding
support for waste-to-energy programs in the Patna District, Bihar, based on rice husk power systems,

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MARCH 2020

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2020

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