Recently, another Indian coal mining company – Neyveli Lignite Corporation – announced its plans to invest $80 million to develop 80MW of wind and solar power capacity.The current initiative of Coal India would also definitely help the country to reach Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan to provide electricity to all homes and industrial units round-the-clock with an investment target of $100 billion in renewable energy including solar and wind.

Another reason for promotion of renewable energy infrastructure, especially solar power projects, through government-owned companies is the leverage to use domestically manufactured solar photovoltaic (PV) modules and equipment. As per the plan drawn up by the government, the Indian army and public sector companies will set up 1,000MW solar PV projects each.

In July this year, India had doubled the tax on every metric ton of coal mined or imported in the country. The revenue generated from the coal tax would finance the National Clean Energy Fund (NCEF) which would be utilised for the development of renewable energy projects, environmental projects and research and development projects.