"The government envisions a central role for renewables in the energy sector during the next century. We have set a goal of 10 per cent of power generation capacity addition between now and the year 2012 to come from renewables'', the minister said. Now at 1600 mw, only 1.5 per cent of the total grid capacity in the country is based on renewable energy sources.

Kannappan was participating in the dedication ceremony of Centre for Wind Energy Technology (C-Wet) and inaugurating the seminar on the role of C-Wet.A wind turbine test station also is being set up at Kayathar in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu as an integral part of this centre to undertake standardisation, testing and certification of wind turbines. It will be functional from the windy season of 2000.

The minister said the institutional structure of research and development in the government sector, and support to R&D in the industry sector, are both being strengthened by ministry. National laboratories, Indian Institute of Technology, universities and industry are involved in this venture. He added that the Solar Energy Centre near Delhi, and the Alternate Hydro Energy Centre in Roorkee were proposed to be strengthened.

A national institute of renewable energy is being established by MNES in Jalandhar as an apex autonomous institution to support R&D, human resource development, training and commercialisation activities.

The ministry also provides support to R&D in new technology areas such as fuel cells, electric vehicles, alternate fuels for transportation, hydrogen energy, tidal power and geothermal energy.

A large domestic manufacturing base has come up in the country for renewable energy systems and products. India is in the fifth place in wind power production, and is the second largest producer in the world of single crystal silicon solar cells. A level of 11 mw of photovoltaic module production per year has been achieved.

Hydel projects up to25 mw under MNES
The Union Cabinet has approved last week the MNES proposal for transferring the work relating to small hydel projects with capacity ranging between 3 mw and 25 mw from the ministry of power to MNES, the minister of state for non-conventional energy sources M Kannappan told reporters in Chennai on Monday. Small hydel projects are found suitable for remote, hilly regions and projects for 173 mw have been installed and for 188 mw are under installation. The identified potential is 6000 mw.