In a major development to incentivize reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) emission in the atmosphere by way of producing clean energy through unconventional energy sources, the United Nations (UN) would grant Rs 80 lakh per year in the form of carbon credit to the Uttarakhand Renewable Energy Development Authority (UREDA) for next 10 years beginning December, this year.
With this, the UREDA becomes the first Government agency to get carbon credit from the UN for reducing emission of CO2 by promoting non-conventional means of energy.
The UREDA has achieved this feat for promoting micro hydro projects in remote areas. There are about 29 such micro hydro projects set up in different districts of the hill State with a capacity of producing 3.115 mw of electricity under the carbon development mechanism (CDM).
Under this CDM programme, it is estimated that about 11.17 million unit of electricity would be generated from these small hydro power projects per year. This amount of electricity would prevent emission of around 8668 tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which would have otherwise been spewed by conventional methods of power generation.
The executive board set up under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has already registered this project of UREDA. Following the registration of this project, the UREDA would get `80 lakh as carbon credit from December 2011 per year upto 2020.
“Registration of this project has already been done so we would start getting `80 lakh as carbon credit by the end of this year,” confirmed A K Tyagi, project officer, UREDA, while talking to The Pioneer.
“This is a big achievement for us. All formalities have been completed in this regard,” he added. According to experts, every 1000 unit of electricity generated from clean energy sources helps reduce CO2 emission by a tonne.
Similarly, 11.17 million units of electricity generated from unconventional sources of energy in place of kerosene and diesel under this ambitious CDM programme would help reduce emission of 8668 tonnes of CO2.
Out of as many as 29 micro hydro electricity projects, 17 projects are in Kumaon division with 12 in Bageshwar, three in Pithoragarh and one each in Nainital and Almora.
The remainder dozen of these micro hydro power projects are in the Garhwal region while as many as seven such projects are in Chamoli, one in Tehri, and four in Uttarkashi. The total capacity of these 29 micro hydro power projects 3.115 mw.
