Team Herald
PORVORIM: The State government on Monday released a draft ‘Goa State Energy Vision 2050’ with a focus to make Goa the first State in the country to run on 100 per cent renewable energy by 2050.
Minister for New and Renewable Energy Ramakrishna ‘Sudin’ Dhavalikar tabled the draft vision on the Floor of the House, wherein the government aims to operate 50 per cent of all ferries on electricity by 2025 and ensure that 30 per cent of all the new vehicles are electric vehicles (EVs) by 2030. The policy also aims to create 10,000 additional jobs in the market directly and indirectly linked to EV.
“The Goa Energy Vision 2050 will serve as a foundation to develop an energy roadmap which will reflect the changing energy needs, promote economic growth and ensure affordable and reliable green energy access in Goa,” the document stated.
Dhavalikar informed the State Legislative Assembly that State’s power demand at present is 540 Mg Watt per day and it touches 750 MW per day during the peak hour. “Our aim is to generate 150 MW of renewable power by 2030,” he said.
He said that the government already has a solar roof top policy to promote generating of renewable energy at residential and commercial building.
He said that by March 2024 all the government buildings in Panjim will have solar panels installed, helping the city generate 150 MW of solar power.
“The work will commenced in the current financial year and it will be completed by March 2024,” the Minister said.
The draft policy focuses on increasing share of renewable power generation capacity of the State to contribute towards the national commitment of achieving 50 per cent non-fossil based generation capacity by 2030 in the process of achieving 100 per cent renewable energy in the State by 2050.
The policy speaks about increasing the penetration of electric vehicles to a minimum of 75 per cent for public transport, 100 per cent for two-wheelers and taxis and to a minimum of 50 per cent ferry boats by 2050.
As per the policy, the government intends to replace all diesel pumps with solar pumps by 2030 and to connect it with electric grid by 2050.
“Make Goa as clean cooking State by 2050 by replacing all emissive and polluting cooking fuels with green and carbon neutral fuels like green electricity (induction cooking), biogas, methanol blended cooking gas, reuse of spent fuel, etc,” stated the draft vision.
The government intends to make use of entire waste generated in municipal and panchayat areas to produce energy as well as compost for sustainable waste management.