Solar mfg generating 30,000 jobs, govt. tells Parliament

The Minister of State for New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) Bhagwanth Khuba has told Parliament that the solar manufacturing industry is providing 29,900 new jobs every year. The employment generated is based on the installed capacity as the Minister informed the Rajya Sabha.

Also, Power Minister RK Singh said that India has achieved 40 per cent of required energy from non-fossil fuel which is nine years in advance.

Replying to a question of V Vijayasai Reddy, an MP, the Khuba said, “One MW provides 2.6 jobs per year and based on that annual jobs per year is 29,900.”

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The MNRE Minister said that the Central Government will construct solar power parks, fulfilling the demands of various states. He also informed that by February 2022, about 62,000 people were given training in the solar sector.

Subsequently, Power Minister RK Singh also informed the House that the government already has a PLI scheme for solar manufacturing here of about Rs 4,500 cr and the Finance Minister has announced a second PLI scheme in the budget of Rs 19,500 crore.

RK Singh said, “For that also, we are going to come out with a bid. This is not the only step which we are taking. We have also set up a tariff barrier.” He said that module imports will attract 40% custom duty and 20% custom duty on cells.

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The Power Minister said that the country is making progress with ‘Make-in-India’ and India has built solar power parks worth 30,000 MW and increasingly adding more. “We already have some manufacturing capacity of 15,000 MW and we want to scale it up. We want to emerge as an exporter of the module.”

He said that according to an analysis brought out in January 2022 by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC) and Skill Council for Green Jobs, the cumulative 81 GW renewable energy capacity addition has created an estimated 1,11,400 full-time equivalent’ employment across various project phases as of August 2021.

Answering a question regarding delays in the incentives offered by the Central Government and delays in judgements by sectoral regulators, the Power Minister said, “We have meetings with the forum of regulators. We have emphasised to them as they should not set up unnecessary hurdles in setting up of renewable energy and pendency in their courts must come down. We have a system of monitoring of cases with the regulators.”

RK Singh added that India has achieved the target of having its energy requirement of 40% coming from non-fossil fuel sources by nine years in advance in November 2021. He said, “Our rate of growth of renewable energy is the fastest in the world and continue to be the fastest. We will reach the target of 500 GW.”