Environment Ministry relaxes lease rent on wind power projects

Ministry of Environment has decided to relax the mandatory charging of lease rent of  30 thousand rupees per Mega Watt for wind power projects. 

According to an official release,  Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar took a conscious decision to relax the condition of charging the lease rent in this regard during a review meeting. 

Mr Javadekar said that the step will boost the investment in wind power projects and will help in providing wind power at a cheaper rate. It said, currently, to establish wind power project over forest land, the existing procedure requires payment of mandatory charges for compensatory afforestation and Net Present value. 

In addition to mandatory charges, the wind power companies had to pay additional lease rent of 30 thousand per Mega Watt and this additional cost is not



mandatory for other renewable energy projects such as solar power and hydel electric projects. 

Mr Javadekar said, the government envisages meeting maximum energy requirement by tapping renewal energy resources. He said, to achieve the target of clean energy in a time-bound manner, various policies and regulations are being constantly d.

The release said, promotions of such projects also strengthen Government's commitments towards International Agreements, and one of the National Commitment pledged in Paris in 2015 was to have 40 per cent of the power from renewable resources by 2030. 

It said,  currently India has overachieved the target and is well on track to ensure that more than 50 per cent of installed capacity come from renewable sources by 2030.