New grant policy on renewable energy issued

Kathmandu, May 23: The Government of Nepal has revised the grant policy related to the renewable energy technology sector.

The renewable energy grant policy is aimed at streamlining the grant to the renewable energy sector for development of clean, reliable and easily available renewable energy to the people by 2030.

The Renewable Energy Promotion Centre executive Director Ram Prasad Dhital informed that the revised policy aims at lessening the traditional and import dependency in the renewable energy technologies and increasing the employment in rural areas for betterment of the people.

The revised policy also will benefit the locals by reducing the installation charges at the beginning, extending the services among the needy and poor people and promoting the private and public investment in the sectors.

Similarly, it will further promote the culture of collaboration and partnership, and also attract the business loan, lessening the risk of investment of the sectors.

It is stated that the policy will attract the cheaper technology in the sector to avail the services to the service recipients. The policy will bear about 40 per cent installation and construction costs while remaining 30 per cent should be managed through soft loan and other remaining 30 per cent should be contributed from consumers’ level or other any types of sources.

Likewise, families led by the women, quake survivors, ethnic minorities and dalit communities could get more grants for the same as per the need.

With this policy, the sectors which were not reached by the national transmission line and the mini hydro-projects up to one megawatt will receive the grants.

Similarly the small scale water mills, solar energy plants, pump irrigation projects, solar pumping projects would get the grant under this policy.

The policy would be implemented through Alternative Energy Promotion Centre.

So far about 26 megawatt of hydro-power has been generated and over 350,000 biogas plants, about 700,000 solar lighting system and over 1.2 million improved cooking stoves have been installed through such projects launched by the government and different development partner projects. With this, over three million households are benefitted. RSS