Odisha Plans Land Lease Policy to Boost Renewable Energy

• Odisha is creating a land lease policy to support renewable energy projects and meet Net Zero targets
• The policy will lease land to developers for 25 years at a nominal rate, with implementation in two months
• The state promotes clean energy projects and offers subsidies for rooftop solar and other initiatives

The Odisha government is developing a policy to lease land for renewable energy (RE) projects as part of its commitment to achieving Net Zero emissions.

GRIDCO Ltd's Managing Director, Satyapriya Rath, said that there is a lot of difficulty to acquire lands for Renewable energy plants in India, so our approach to deal with that issue is to develop a dedicated Land Lease Policy which will assist Developers in establishing/relocating areas for their projects. GRIDCO Ltd has been tasked to act as the intermediate agency (Purchasing Bulk Energy) for all energy that is used in the state.

In regards to the New Lease Policy, Rath stated that it is still in Draft form and will be revised based on discussions with all stakeholders involved in the process, and is expected to be implemented within approximately the next two months.

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In accordance with the policy being introduced, all land leased to renewable energy firms shall last for twenty-five years at an insignificant cost. Concurrent with its effort to obtain compliance with Renewable Purchase Obligations (RPO), Odisha is promoting many different forms of clean energy creation including Solar, Hydro, Green Hydrogen and Green Ammonia.

Odisha presently has over 9000 MW of power generated by its installed capacity; over 2,150 MW of these will come from Hydroelectricity, while the remainder of the total will be received via the importation of 500-600 MW from other states to the west. Approximately 160 sites currently exist for developing small-scale Hydro Projects.

In addition, the Government of Odisha has introduced a subsidy under the PM Surya Ghar Yojana to encourage the use of rooftop solar systems. Further projects like Floating Solar and Agro-Photovoltaic are also being promoted actively in the state.