NewZNew (Chandigarh) : Calling for a need to integrate the efforts of all stakeholders like the industry, research units, technical universities, Govt agencies and pollution control boards as also the state & central governments, the senior Government officials from both Punjab and Haryana emphasized the need to develop and manufacture economically viable equipment at cheaper costs in India, in order to protect the environment and sustain the same in the long run at CII EnviroTech 2014, organized by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Indian Green Building Council (IGBC),  at CII NR Headquarters in Sector 31 A, here today.

“It is highly imperative that the green and clean technologies and equipment is adopted everywhere, especially in manufacturing and services so as to reduce our carbon footprints in the environment. The industry from the region has to take this responsibility on its shoulders to produce such products at cheaper prices as well as promote the use of such technologies. Our government is fully committed to support you with incentives”, shared Dr Avtar Singh, Principal Secretary, Environment, Government of Haryana.

“In India, urban population is expected to touch 50 % by 2050 from the present figure of 31 %. This would put even more adverse pressure on natural resources and forest land and ask for a lot of building and construction material, huge energy supplies, better transport facilities and a lot of food and other material. All this would cause havoc if we do not promote the use of clean, green and non-conventional sources of energy.

We also need to build integrated cities with sound public transport system and real assistance and safety for pedestrians and cyclists”, added Dr Singh.

“We in Haryana have launched a solar energy policy to promote the use of solar energy for residential, industrial and water heating purposes, offering huge subsidies. We are also advocating aggressively the adoption of other non-conventional sources of energy like Medical & MC waste and use of green building technologies and most advanced energy efficient machinery by offering incentives.

Mr Anirudh Tewari, Secretary – Power, New & Renewable Energy and Chairman, Punjab Energy Development Agency, Government of Punjab also echoed similar views.

“To save our future generations from adverse effects of pollution from traditional sources of energy, we need to bring the energy efficient technologies and products in to the mainstream but very High Cost of such technologies is indeed the biggest bottleneck in promoting its mass adoption”, said Mr Tewari.

“At present, the Government mandates the use of certain technologies but since they are too costly, the industry fails to implement it”, he lamented.

“ I feel that incentives are better than mandates in this case, hence the only way out for the Government is to incentivize the production and adoption of these technologies and products by industry ”, he added.

“Further, to give a big boost to clean energy including solar, hydel, wind and bio-mass etc, it is crucial that all key stakeholders like the R&D institutes, banks, industry and the governments came together on a common platform and reached an understanding regarding the timelines, subsidies and the incentives on the use of such technologies”, highlighted Mr Tewari.

Sharing details about the Punjab government’s recently notified Net Metering Policy for installation of Grid interactive Roof Top Solar Power projects in homes, institutions, Commercial/private/governmental buildings, warehouses and industries, he added that “Under this policy, a solar power plant would be set up on the Roof Top of the building. During the day time power generated there would be used there or in case of excess or no usage it would be fed in the grid. During the night it could be drawn. The power supplied to grid in winters could be drawn during summers”.

He added that under this ambitious policy, Solar power projects of capacity ranging from 1KW to 1000KW could be installed and the maximum capacity of solar power project to be installed in a building would be 80 percent of the sanctioned electricity load of that building.

Mr Palash Roy Chowdhury, Chairman, CII EnviroTech 2014 & Managing Director, Pratt & Whitney shared that “Existing MSMEs, budding entrepreneurs and policy makers will be integral to India’s transition to a green economy. Today’s conference was an attempt to initiate a cascade of events that will take the issues critical to sustainable growth right to their doorstep. The global market for green technologies is predicted to grow to $396 billion. India is already a leader in clean energy investment, attracting 4% of the global investments in clean energy in 2013. CII has been taking active initiatives towards clean and green environment. The Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), part of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) was formed in the year 2001. The vision of the council is, “To enable a sustainable built environment for all and facilitate India to be one of the global leaders in the sustainable built environment by 2025”.

Mr Harish Chavan, Vice Chairman, CII Punjab State Council shared that CII is committed to provide all kind of support and facilitate the state governments in spreading awareness about the energy efficient technologies.

“Sharing knowledge on complementary technologies and successes through CII EnviroTech helps business reach the end goal of a more energy efficient India,” said Dr. Amit Paithankar, Vice President & Managing Director, Emerson Process Management, India. “We are strong advocates of converting and using waste plus maximizing plant efficiency.  For example, Emerson helps measure key parameters of fuel, steam, water and air in a plant which can result in potential savings of 1-15 million dollars of annual operating expense depending on its size. We have also introduced technology which optimizes combustion processes, converts food wastage to energy and generate power from wind turbines.”

Mr Rakesh Bhan, Chief Manager from SBI shared the key funding schemes for various budding entrepreneurs and innovative MSMEs who are willing to implement any emerging technologies in renewable energy space.

“We would conduct Techno Economic Viability and fund the MSMEs to the extent of 70 % under our Scheme for interest free (SMILE) scheme. This scheme envisages grant of interest free loan as equity assistance repayable over a long period to assist eligible professional and technically qualified entrepreneurs setting up new Micro and Small enterprises (MSEs)”, he added.