Arunachal to earn carbon credits from micro, mini, small hydro projects

New Delhi/Itanagar, Feb 5: Arunachal Pradesh is banking on its micro, mini, and small hydropower projects to earn carbon credits, a step the state government believes will add to the efforts for India to achieve net zero emissions by 2070.

"Out of the total hydropower plants in the state, 98 micro, mini and small hydropower plants with combined installed capacity of 50.295 MW have been considered for carbon credits registration and assets management for the year 2014-2020," said a top government official.

These hydropower plants are run-of-river plants, and eligible for carbon credit. Micro-hydro projects are those up to 200 KW capacity, mini up to 2 MW and small up to 25 MW.

The state Hydro Power Development Department is the renewable energy-producing entity that will claim Carbon Credits, which are issued by the Universal Carbon Registry.

Deputy Chief Minister, Chowna Mein, who is also in-charge of the Department, was instrumental in getting the Carbon Assets Management (Carbon Credits Trading) for hydropower plants.

With state-owned 135 plants, the Department has power worth 74.88 million units, which is equivalent to 54,410 Carbon Credits annually and can earn approximately Rs 1.15 crore at present rate. Of the three-stage process of registration, credit realisation and trading, the state is through with the first one.

"We expect to get credits somewhere in 3-4 months or at max, six months. Once that is done, trading can be done any time," state's Commissioner, Hydropower and Planning, Prashant Lokhande told IANS.

Once anointed as the powerhouse of the nation for its vast potential of 50,000 MW plus hydropower, Arunachal Pradesh has been catering to its villages spread over mighty Himalayas with such small, micro, and mini hydro power projects on smaller springs, rivers even as it aims at selling power from mega hydropower projects on bigger rivers.

Recently, Arunachal Pradesh has announced 50 micro and mini hydropower projects under the Golden Jubilee Border Village Illumination programme in a phased manner. In the first phase, 17 micro and mini hydropower projects with installed capacity of 1,255 KW are planned.

"Our small hydro installation is 80MW out of which 50 MW is eligible as they are commissioned after 2002. However, we will also ask NEEPCO to go for the same for 600 MW Kameng and 110 MW Pare hydropower projects," Lokhande added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had last November announced that India aims at achieving net zero target by 2070. Net zero means extracting carbon from the atmosphere or preventing carbon emission as much as a given unit consumes - be it a small factory, a town, or a country.