(a) whether the Government proposes to set up Research & Development Centres to promote clean energy in collaboration with any of the foreign countries;
(b) if so, the details thereof; and
(c) the steps taken by the Government to promote use of clean energy?
THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR POWER, COAL & NEW AND RENEWABLE ENERGY (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) (SHRI PIYUSH GOYAL)
(a)&(b): Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has set up three institutes, namely, National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE), Gurgaon, Haryana; National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE), Chennai, Tamil Nadu and Sardar Swaran Singh National Institute of Renewable Energy, Kapurthala, Punjab for carrying out Research and Development (R&D), Testing and Demonstration for development and promotion of renewable energy technologies / systems. NISE is collaborating with National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA; Loughborough University, U.K. and National Metrology Institute (PTB), Germany for various aspects of R&D and testing in solar energy.
(c): Various measures taken for promotion of clean renewable energy include; provision of fiscal and financial incentives such as capital/interest sub- sidy, generation based incentives, accelerated depreciation, concessional excise and customs duties, preferential tariff for purchase of power generated from renewable sources. Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has recently organized a Rene- wable Energy Global Investment Promotion Meet (RE- INVEST 2015) on 15-17th February 2015 at New Delhi as an attempt to attract investments in the rene- wable energy sector in India.