UREDA (Uttarakhand Renewable Energy Development Agency ) Renewable Energy Programmes :

The State of Uttarakhand since its existence is trying to harp on Non-Conventional and renewable energy sources in order to achieve sustainability in the energy sector. The Uttarakhand Renewable Energy Development Agency (UREDA) has been established in July, 2001 exclusively to promote Renewable Energy Sources, for which the state has tremendous potential.

Govt. of Uttarakhand, from 27th August, 2008, has nominated UREDA as "State Designated Agency (SDA)" in the State of Uttarakhand for Energy Conservation Programmes and awareness.. An Energy Conservation Cell has been created in the UREDA for implementation of Programmes in the State.

UREDA functions under the administrative control of Department of Renewable Energy, Govt. of Uttarakhand and basically implements the following programmes in the State:-

• Renewable Energy Programmes including generation of Power from Renewable Energy Sources
• Implementation of Energy Conservation Act, 2001.
• Demand side management
• Accreditation of RE Projects under REC (Renewable Energy Certificate) Mechanism.
• In addition, UREDA designs and implements its own programmes which are specially suited for the state of Uttarakhand, and in many ways, has evolved systems, which are now accepted under the national programme.

Renewable Energy Programmes run by the Agency are :

1. Bio Energy Programme :

(a)Pine Needles Based Biomass Gasifier "A Pilot Project" : The total area of Pine Forest in reserve forest in Uttarakhand is about 3.43 Lakh Hectare. These Pine forests in Uttarakhand produces about 20.58 lakhs tones dry biomass (pine needle) annually. Since carriage of pine needle is not easy, hence if we consider the carriage of pine needles from the pine forests which are near to habitation or near the road head than approximately 40% of the biomass can be transported. Hence we can hope to get about 8.23 lakh tones every year and about 0.80 lakh tones pine needles is available in Van Panchayat and Civil Soyam Forest. The quantity of lantana can be taken as 2 Qtls/Hectare in reserve forest and in protected areas such as Rajaji National Park and Corbet National Park, the average yield of lantana is about 10 tls/Hectare. Keeping in this mind UREDA had organised a workshop on prospective uses of pine needles for energy application on September 2010.

( b) Family Size Biogas Plants : MNRE is providing a subsidy on family size biogas plants under National Biogas Manure Management Programme (NBMMP). Biogas Plants capacity ranging 1, 2-4 Cum capacity are to be installed under this programme.

• To provide clean bio-gaseous fuel mainly for cooking purposes and also for other applications for reducing use of LPG and other conventional fuels. 
• To improve sanitation in villages by linking sanitary toilets with biogas plants; To mitigate Climate Change by preventing black carbon and methane emissions.

( c ) Biogas Power Generation Plants : The cow dung producing livestock in Uttarakhand is approximately 32 lac nos. 25kg cow dung is required for generation of 1m³ Biogas. Approximate quantity of cow dung is 16 lac kg which can be used for producing 640000 cum biogas generation.

2. Village Electrification :

(a) Village Electrification Through Solar Energy :Under Village Electrification programme of MNRE through solar energy, UREDA has electrified 530 remote villages and 98 hamlets in the state of Uttarakhand.

(b) Village Electrification through Micro Hydro Projects: Electrification is one of the most vital requirements for socio-economic development of rural areas of the state Uttarakhand. The linkages between renewable energy, sustainable livelihoods, and socio-economic development are well recognized. Micro hydro power projects in the remote rural areas of the state of Uttarakhand can provide energy services for sustainable development based on indigenous resources, with minimum expenditure, commitments, and exploitation of natural resource base.

3. Solar Thermal Programme :

( a ) Solar Water Heater : Solar water heater consists of a collector to collect solar energy and an insulated storage tank to store water. The solar energy incident on the absorber panel coated with selected coating transfers the heat to the riser pipes underneath the absorber panel. The water passing through the risers get heated up and are delivered to the storage tank.

(b)Solar Steam Cooking System : Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Govt. of India is promoting Concentrating Solar Technology based systems for process heat, community cooking and space cooling applications in various sectors.

For cooking of food in Hotels, Ashrams, Educational Institutions and steam generation for laundry application, space cooling, foods processing in industries, Concentrating Solar Technologies are in implementation for last many years. Few other technologies e.g. dual axis tracked paraboloid dishes, linear Fresnel reflectors, Non-imaging concentrators have also been developed recently and are in demonstration stage.

The systems are being installed through State Nodal Agencies /accredited private channel partners as per technical specifications laid down by MNRE. 15% support under UNDP programme is also admissible.

4. Solar PV Programme :

(a) Distribution of Solar Lanterns : UREDA has distributed a total 66964 solar lanterns since from its formation and proposed another 79359 solar lanterns. Distribution of 79359 Solar Lanterns to All the Households in the International Border Blocks of Uttarakhand under Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) has been proposed to MNRE. 

(b)Solar Street Lighting Programme : UREDA with the support of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) provided Solar Street Lights and found this system to be very useful for villagers.

UREDA since from its formation has installed a total number of 3750 solar street lights up to the year 2008 for facilitating the people living in remote and inaccessible areas and then installed another 1226 and 1147 solar street light during the year 2008-09 and 2009-10 respectively.

 (c) Solar Charkha (Spinning Mill) : UREDA has launched a Solar Charkha programme for people in various districts of Uttarakhand which were using hand operated drop spindle & paddle operated charkha for spinning of Wool & Silk. In order to increase the earnings and enhancing livelihood opportunities of spinners, UREDA has introduce solar powered motorised spinning machine with the help of NGO’s like AVANI and TERI.

 5. Micro/ Mini Hydro Programme :

(a) Small Hydro Programme in Uttarakhand : The energy-development relationship has numerous social and political implications in Uttarakhand, where about 63.10% of the population lives in rural areas and most of them belong below the poverty line. Geographical conditions of the state differ at a short distance. Most of the area is hilly and forest coverage is about 66%. Villages are in scattered manner and household coverage in a village is short. In this situation, either it is not possible to laid grid lines due to forest laws or due to high cost of coverage. Operation and maintenance is also an issue in this pattern. As a solution of this problem- Decentralized Distributed Generation (DDG) Micro & Mini Hydro Projects are suitable and best way to provide electricity facility to the forest fringe and scattered villages. Operation and maintenance of Standalone MHPs can be done in easy manner by local community after a formal training.

( b ) Improved Watermill Programme : As per the survey conducted by the UREDA, 15449 traditional watermills (Gharats) exist in working or defunct condition. UREDA is engaged in up-gradation of these traditional watermills for mechanical, electrical and electromechanical use with the financial support of MNRE.

Up-gradation and production of new modern technologies specially designed for the grass root conditions of the area are being taken up in a big way so that the productivity of this important section of population gets increased and they get heigher returns with lesser efforts. Upgradation of such traditional watermills can be great source of employment generation.