Addressing Land Issues for
Utility Scale Renewable
Energy Deployment in India
December 2017
Report
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CONTACT DETAILS
Office Address
TERI School of Advanced Studies
Plot No. 10 Institutional Area
Vasant Kunj
New Delhi - 110 070, INDIA
Phone +91 11 71800222
Fax +91 11 26122874
Email [email protected]
Website www.teriuniversity.ac.in
The following are the key authors of this report and may be contacted for any questions
and additional information.
Name
Designation
Contact Details
1
Mr Amit Kumar
Senior Director,
TERI
2
Mr Sapan Thapar
Fellow, Teri School
of Advanced
Studies
Disclaimer: The views/analysis expressed in this report/document do not necessarily
reflect the views of Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation. The Foundation also does
not guarantee the accuracy of any data included in this publication nor does it accept
any responsibility for the consequences of its use.
For private circulation only
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Acknowledgement
Teri School of Advanced Studies (TSAS) would like to take this opportunity to
recognise the invaluable contributions of various stakeholders in writing this report.
The team expresses its sincere thanks to Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation
(SSEF) for the project grant and conveys its gratitude to Mr. Deepak Gupta and Ms.
Disha Agarwal for providing feedback all through the study period.
The team is thankful to Dr Leena Srivastava, VC, and Dr Rajiv Seth, Pro-VC, TSAS for
their overall guidance. We express our gratitude to Mr Anand Kumar, Secretary,
MNRE, Dr Ajay Mathur, DG, TERI, Mr Dilip Nigam, Advisor, MNRE and Dr Ashvini
Kumar, MD, SECI, for providing key research aspects for this study. Many of their
suggestions have been duly incorporated in the report. Mr Rajnath Ram, Joint
Advisor, Energy at the NITI Aayog provided vital inputs on the role of government
agencies in land procurement. Dr G Giridhar, DDG, NIWE, who shared information
on design of Solar and Wind Atlas and Dr Praveen Saxena, DG, Skill Council for
Green Jobs, who opined use of CSR for skill development, deserves our appreciation.
Officials representing State Nodal Agencies of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Punjab
and Rajasthan shared state level perspectives including best practices. These included
Mr MP Singh from PEDA, Mr Srinivas from NREDCAP, Mr SK Goyal from RREC and
Mr Mohan Kumar from KREDL. Mr Harenda Tomar from SECI, who shared
information on Solar Parks, besides facilitating Solar Park visit deserves our thanks.
The team would thank the officials from leading financial institutions who opined
about the practical solutions on land related issues deserves. They included Mr
Arunavo Mukherjee from Tata Capital, Dr Amit Jain from World Bank, Mr VS Bisht
from PTC Finance, Mr KP Philip from IREDA and Dr Ishan Purohit from IFC.
From the project developers and investors side, field level practices were shared by
representatives from leading companies, notable among them- Mr Chintan Shah from
Suzlon, Mr Shivdev Singh from Azure, Mr Ajith Pillai from Renew Power and Mr
Charanjeet Singh from PTC and we convey our sincere gratitude to them.
Representatives from industrial associations, Mr V Subramanium, INWEA, Mr
Shekhar Dutt, SPDA and Mr OP Taneja from IWTMA, shared their opinion on the
subject and made useful suggestions.
Leading consultants and representatives from civil society organizations contributed
immensely by way of suggesting pragmatic solutions and they deserve our obligation.
They included Mr Lalit Chaturvedi from IDAM Infra, Mr Chandra Bhushan from
CSE, Mr Ashwin Gambhir from Prayas Energy, Mr Shilp Verma from IWMI, Mr
Mudit Jain from Bridge to India and Mr Avadesh Mittal from Green Strategy.
A special mention to our colleagues from TERI and T-SAS who contributed to the
study- Dr MV Shiju, Dr Somendu Sarkar, Dr Gopal Sarangi, Mr Ankit Narula & Mr
Adwit Kashyap. Experts from partner organizations who contributed this study
include Prof. Seema Sharma from IIT Delhi and Mr Avijit Lala and Ms Molshree from
Niti Niyaman, a law firm. Special thanks to Mr Manish Mishra, who helped in data
collection and to Mr. Ravi Nair from TERI for the secretarial support.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 10
1.0 INTRODUCTION 15
1.1 Need for the Study 16
1.2 Objectives of the Study 17
1.3 Study Approach 17
1.4 Boundary Conditions 18
1.4.1 Renewable Energy Technologies 18
1.4.2 Land Ownership Types 18
1.4.3 Focal States 19
2.0 INDIAN RENEWABLE ENERGY SECTOR 21
2.1 Key Policies and Regulations 23
3.0 LAND PROFILE OF INDIA 25
3.1 Land Use Types 26
3.2 Wasteland 30
3.3 Land Holdings 32
3.4 Land Utilization Analysis 33
4.0 LAND RELATED LEGISLATION AND ACTS 35
4.1 Land Utilization Policies 35
4.2 Land Ownership Types 36
4.3 Land Procurement Acts and Legislations 37
4.4 Land Records 41
5.0 SOLAR AND WIND ENERGY POLICIES 42
5.1 Solar Energy Policies 42
5.2 Wind Energy Policies 50
6.0 LAND PROCUREMENT PROCEDURE 54
6.1 Private Land 54
6.2 Revenue Land 56
6.3 Land Procurement Models 58
6.4 Land Cost 60
7.0 LAND INTENSITY 62
7.1 Coal Power Plants 62
7.2 Solar Photovoltaic Plants 63
7.3 Wind Energy Projects 66
8.0 SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACTS 69
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8.1 Benefits and Challenges 69
8.2 Regulations 70
8.3 Analysis of ESIA Reports 71
8.4 Employment Generation Prospects 72
8.5 Corporate Social Responsibility 73
9.0 CHALLENGES 74
9.1 Lack of Land Utilization Policy 74
9.2 Poorly Maintained Land Records 74
9.3 Preference for Land Procurement 74
9.4 Land Ceiling Limits 74
9.5 Concentration of Revenue Wasteland 75
9.6 Technological and Local Parameters 75
9.7 Use of Fertile Land 76
9.8 Limited Employment Potential 77
10.0 BEST PRACTICES 78
10.1 Land Procurement and Allotment 78
10.2 Land Use Change and Environmental Approvals 79
10.3 Single Office Facility 80
10.4 Setting Land and Project Capacity Limits 81
10.5 Using Brown-Field and Under-Developed Sites 81
10.6 International Best Practices 82
11.0 PROJECTIONS OF LAND REQUIREMENTS 84
11.1 Base Case 84
11.2 Scenario - I 84
11.3 Scenario - II 85
11.4 Scenario - III 86
12.0 RECOMMENDATIONS 88
12.1 Policy 88
12.1.1 Developing Land Utilization Policy 88
12.1.2 Digitization of Land Records 89
12.1.3 Prioritizing use of Wasteland 89
12.1.4 Model Land Lease Policy 90
12.1.5 Time limits for Project Development 90
12.1.6 Using Brownfield Sites 91
12.2 Technology 91
12.2.1 Land Zonation Exercise 91
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12.2.2 Use of GIS Technology 91
12.2.3 Setting up Wind-Solar Hybrid Projects 92
12.2.4 Promoting Land Neutral Technologies 92
12.2.5 Adopting New Technologies 93
12.3 Social 94
12.3.1 Undertaking Social Impact Assessment 94
12.3.2 Exploring Community Business Models 94
ANNEXURE I: QUESTIONNAIRE 96
ANNEXURE II: STAKEHOLDER WORKSHOP 99
ANNEXURE III: SITE VISITS 103
ANNEXURE IV: COMMUNITY BUSINESS MODELS 105
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List of Tables
Table 1: RE Installed Capacity- India ............................................................................................................... 22
Table 2: All India Land Utilization (1950-51 to 1990-91) .............................................................................. 29
Table 3: All India Land Utilization (2000-01 to 2009-10)............................................................................ 29
Table 4: State Wise Pattern of Land Utilization (FY 2008-09) .................................................................... 30
Table 5: Distribution of Agriculture Land Holdings ...................................................................................... 32
Table 6: Share of Agriculture Land Holdings ................................................................................................. 32
Table 7: Land for Solar Projects in Rajasthan ................................................................................................. 42
Table 8: Solar Park Analysis .............................................................................................................................. 47
Table 9: Summary of State Solar Policies ........................................................................................................ 49
Table 10: Wind Policy Summary ...................................................................................................................... 53
Table 11: Steps in Private Land Procurement for Wind Project ................................................................... 55
Table 12: Steps in Revenue Land Leasing for Solar Project .......................................................................... 57
Table 13: Land Procurement Models ............................................................................................................... 60
Table 14: Land Intensity of Solar Technologies .............................................................................................. 63
Table 15: Comparison of Land Intensity of Solar Projects ............................................................................ 64
Table 16: Comparison of Module Capacity and Land Requirements .......................................................... 64
Table 17: State Wise Solar Power Potential ..................................................................................................... 66
Table 18: Land Intensity of Wind Projects ...................................................................................................... 68
Table 19: State Wise Wind Energy Potential ................................................................................................... 68
Table 20: Land Requirements-Base Case ........................................................................................................ 84
Table 21: Land Requirements-Scenario I ........................................................................................................ 85
Table 22: Land Requirements-Scenario II ...................................................................................................... 86
Table 23: Land Requirements-Scenario III .................................................................................................... 87
List of Figures
Figure 1: Indian Power Scenario ....................................................................................................................... 21
Figure 2: Indian RE Sector Growth Trends..................................................................................................... 22
Figure 3: Indian RE Sector Targets .................................................................................................................. 24
Figure 4: Land Use and Land Cover for India ................................................................................................ 26
Figure 5: Distribution of Wasteland in India .................................................................................................. 31
Figure 6: Wasteland Categories ........................................................................................................................ 31
Figure 7: Steps in Private land procurement–Solar project.......................................................................... 55
Figure 8: Steps in Revenue Land Leasing – Wind Project ............................................................................ 57
Figure 9: Typical Timelines in Land Leasing .................................................................................................. 58
Figure 10: Latitude Map of India ...................................................................................................................... 65
Figure 11: Wind Farm Outlay ............................................................................................................................ 67
Figure 12: Schematic of LLP Business Model ............................................................................................... 105
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ABBREVIATIONS
CAGR Cumulated Annual Growth Rate
CERC Central Electricity Regulatory Commission
CLU Change in Land Use
CPCB Central Pollution Control Board
DILRMP Digital India Land Records Modernization Programme
EIA Environmental Impact Assessment
ESIA Environmental and Social Impact Assessment
FDI Foreign Direct Investment
FTE Full Time Equivalent Jobs
GoI Government of India
GDP Gross Domestic Product
GW Giga Watts
Ha Hectare (1 Hectare = 2.47 acres)
IPP Independent Power Producer
ISTS Inter-State Transmission System
KREDL Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Limited
LADF Local Area Development Fund
MoEFCC Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change
MNRE Ministry of New and Renewable Energy
MoP Ministry of Power
MW Mega Watts
NDC Nationally Determined Contribution
NIWE National Institute of Wind Energy
NISE National Institute of Solar Energy
NREDCAP New & Renewable Energy Development Corporation of Andhra Pradesh
NSM National Solar Mission
PPP Public Private Partnership
RPO Renewable Purchase Obligation
RE Renewable Energy
RREC Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corporation
SECI Solar Energy Corporation of India
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SNA State Nodal Agency
SPCB State Pollution Control Board
Sqm Square Meter
SSEF Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation
UNFCCC United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
WEG Wind Energy Generators
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The government of India is promoting renewable energy (RE) as an effective tool to
mitigate climate change besides enhancing energy security and enabling energy access.
It has set an ambitious target of 175 GW RE capacity to be achieved by the year 2022.
Procuring land for the upcoming 50 GW ground mounted solar plants and 35 GW of
wind power, estimated at about 1,50,000 hectares of land (considering 1.5 hectares per
MW for wind projects and 2 hectares per MW for s0lar projects) would pose a
significant challenge to both the policy makers as well as the project developers.
Having only 2.4% of the total geographical area, India supports 17% of the global
population. However, there has been no comprehensive land utilization policy either
at the federal level or at the state level. More than two-thirds of our population depends
upon farmland either directly or, indirectly, though the contribution of agriculture to
the national economy is abysmally low at 15%. With a large number of small and
marginal farmers having a land holding of 2 hectares and below, most of the agriculture
farms are of very small size, leading to low yields and limited avenues for technological
interventions. The land area in India has been classified into eight categories which
include forests, arable land, barren and unculturable land, wasteland, fallow land and
land used for non-agricultural purposes.
Since independence, land utilisation in India underwent significant changes. While the
lands under net sown area, forests and non-agricultural uses have increased, the lands
under “other areas” have halved. As such, for future land demands, the forest lands and
agricultural lands may have to be used. Effective land use planning and management
can facilitate optimal utilisation of land resources, based on regional development
plans and looking into the aspect of competing demands of different sectors of the
economy.
Land being a state subject, approvals are required from the concerned departments of
the state government (revenue, panchayat, SNA, industrial, etc.) to procure/ lease the
land, making it time consuming. It is estimated that it takes over 6-9 months to procure
land for setting up solar/ wind project, even though many of the SNAs provide a
deemed Non-Agricultural (NA) status with regard to change in land use status. The
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lack of digitization of land records makes the procurement procedure even more
tedious. Types of land procurement include revenue land allotted on lease and private
land which is to be purchased on mutually agreeable terms. In areas having high cost
of land, leasing of private land has been witnessed in recent years. Revenue land is
typically associated with low rentals, while the private land creates a long-term asset
for the investor.
Land requirement for a wind project varies, depending upon several factors like wind
speed, turbine technology (hub-height) and topography. Similarly, for a solar project,
it depends upon the latitude of the location, solar insolation, topography and
technology. There has been a marked improvement in wind and solar product profiles-
higher efficiency a well as module wattage and higher capacity of turbine, due to
increased hub height and longer blades.
However, the minimum land requirements under most of the government programmes
have not been revised to reflect upon the changing ground realities; the Solar Energy
Corporation of India (SECI) has kept the minimum size of land required for setting up
a solar PV project at 1.5 hectares per MW. In comparison, the power capacity of a
module (Wp per square meter) has increased substantially since last 5 years, from 280
Wp to 335 Wp using the same module area, depicting a 25% increase. Another
important factor is the latitude of the location of a solar project, which determines the
spacing between modules. The latitude varies vastly in India from 10-degree N in
Northern states to 35-degree N at the Southern tip of Peninsular India, which may
influence the land requirements for solar PV projects.
As per a study conducted by the National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE), the total
solar potential in the country has been estimated as 750 GW, considering use of 3% of
wasteland area. The National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE) has also estimated 150
GW of wind power potential in India on wasteland areas. However, it may be noted
that there has been a marked decline in the area categorized as barren and culturable
wasteland since independence. Moreover, the wasteland is concentrated in only a few
states of the country.
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In India, solar photovoltaic power and wind energy projects are not covered under the
ambit of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2006 and no
environment clearance is required for such projects under the provisions thereof. The
Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Government of
India, has placed wind and solar PV projects under ‘White Category’ industries, which
are exempted from obtaining ‘Consent to Operate’ from the concerned State Pollution
Control Board (SPCB).
As in any other infrastructure project, there are socio-economic challenges associated
with solar and wind energy projects. These include accessibility of common resources,
opportunity cost to villagers due to land diversion, adequacy of compensation offered,
livelihood impact on land owners as well as non-title holders and relocation of built up
structures. Most wind and solar projects lead to employment creation for local
community, however the same is limited to unskilled jobs like security personnel,
drivers and module cleaners. Moreover, employment tapers steeply as the project
moves from commissioning phase to maintenance phase. Another impact is use of
fertile land for setting up solar and wind projects which may impact the food security
of the nation. Most of the state governments allow purchase and use of agriculture land
by way of deemed change of land use to non-agriculture (NA) category.
Project developers have been working for last many years on the ground aptly guided
by the state agencies and it would be pertinent to highlight some of the best practices
followed in the sector. With regard to land procurement and allotment, some of the
SNAs have created land banks and have been sharing land coordinates through their
portals. They also offer deemed land use change for the purpose of setting up of solar
and wind projects.
Solar Parks, being developed by SECI in coordination with the state governments,
facilitates land to the project developers with all necessary approvals. Some of the state
governments, through their agencies, have started single window approval facility to
for the investors. In order to ensure prudential use of land, SNAs are earmarking land
limits to be considered while allotting land to the solar and wind project developers. In
case of delay in project execution, the state governments have been strict in taking back
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the land to be re-allotted to other companies. MNRE has recently advised the state
governments to ensure that the wind projects are developed within 4 years of allotment
of revenue land.
Internationally, the Bureau of Land Management in the United States of America
encourages projects developers to bid on government-selected tracts with gusty winds
and intense sunlight pre-cleared of major environmental conflicts. In many European
countries, landowners lease their land to project developers for installing wind turbines
enabling them to receive remunerative rentals in range of $1,250 - 5,000 per turbine,
besides royalty payments equivalent to 2-6% of the gross project revenue.
The study has estimated the land requirements for the solar and wind sectors under
different scenarios. Under the base case scenario, land requirement is around 3.4 lakh
acres after considering existing land usage trends. This gets reduced by about 25% after
taking into account the following interventions -
a) Using higher wattage solar modules and taller hub-height wind turbines
b) Promoting repowering and re-allotment of unused wind sites
c) Using land neutral technologies like canal tops and floating solar systems
d) Co-locating solar modules in existing wind farms
Based on a thorough assessment of the policies, regulations and field practices, while
taking into account views of the stakeholders, the study recommends the following
interventions. These interventions shall facilitate land procurement for setting up solar
and wind projects while minimizing the impacts on the community.
Policy
• Developing land utilization policy for each state to balance the land
requirements of different sectors in an ecologically friendly manner
• Expeditious computerisation of land records
• Prioritizing use of wasteland for solar and wind energy projects,
including inter-state projects exporting power to states with low
wasteland area
• Developing ‘Model Land Lease Agreement’ taking concerns of all entities
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• Re-allotting sites in case of delay in project implementation
• Using brown-field sites like vintage wind farms and reclaimed mining
sites for setting up projects
Technical
• Identifying suitable project sites considering land type, its use, resource
potential, latitude, availability of transmission infrastructure, roads. This
can include superimposing maps of resource availability, land use, land
records and ownership
• Setting up solar-wind hybrid projects in vintage wind farms
• Promoting land-neutral technologies using rooftops, canal tops and
floating systems besides encouraging new technologies like solar trackers
Socio-economic
• Conducting ‘Social Impact Assessment’ for wind farms and solar projects
including solar parks above a certain capacity threshold, which could
include livelihood and skill development planning for the local community
• Exploring community participation schemes using innovative business
models, wherein, landowners can become shareholders in RE companies
based on the notional value of their land
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1.0 INTRODUCTION
India’s high economic growth coupled with a growing population has led to a steady
growth in the levels of energy demand. The sustained growth in the economy is aimed
at ameliorating the living standards of the masses. Due to a positive correlation
between energy consumption and economic growth, there has been a concomitant
growth in the energy generation capacity and transmission facilities.
The Indian grid is having a substantial share of fossil fuel based electricity, with about
80%
1
of the total power generation attributed to coal fired plants, which are considered
as key source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Associated with minimal emissions,
renewable energy based power generation technologies offer a mitigation to the
sustainability problems associated with conventional fossil fuels, besides enhancing
the energy security of a country.
With these perspectives, the government of India has set large scale renewable energy
targets to meet the climate goals and provide clean energy to the masses. It has been
supporting the renewable energy sector by a slew of policy interventions including
preferential tariff, tax and duty exemptions, besides priority in power evacuation and
despatch. As a result, over 60 GW of renewable energy based projects have come
onstream, which is equivalent to 15% of the total installed capacity and contributes 7%
to the grid (as on July 2017); major contribution is from the wind energy and solar
photovoltaic based power projects.
Under the ‘Nationally Determined Contributions’ (NDC) committed by the Indian
government to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, it has
aimed to reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33 to 35% by the year 2030 (from
2005 level) and achieve 40% cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-
fossil fuel based energy resources
2
. The interim capacity targets for the year 2022
3
have
been set at 175 GW, including 100 GW from solar power and 60 GW from wind energy.
1
Executive Summary for July 2017, Central Electricity Authority
2
India’s Nationally Determined Contribution submitted to UNFCCC
3
Targets as set by MNRE
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1.1 Need for the Study
Among the key issues identified towards accelerating the pace of deployment of
renewable energy projects in the country is the availability of land at affordable rates
and within certain fixed timelines. India is the second most populous nation globally,
supporting 17% of the global population, residing in only 2.4% of the global land area,
leading to a high population density.
Both solar and wind energy technologies are land intensive in nature, and the 2022-
targets would require huge amount of land. Considering the current land usage trends,
about 1,50,000 hectares of land would be required to support 50 GW of ground
mounted solar and 30 GW of wind capacity, considering land requirements of 2
hectares per MW for s0lar photovoltaic energy projects and 1.5 hectares per MW for
wind energy projects.
With regard to ownership, land can be classified as forest and revenue land owned by
the government, or its agencies, private land owned by individuals/ entities and
community land owned by the Panchayat. For obtaining revenue land on lease,
approvals are required at different levels of the government hierarchy. The
procurement of private land requires negotiations with the land owners followed by
land use change to non-agricultural/ industrial category.
Land, being a state subject under the Indian constitution, the procedure to procure or
lease land is tedious and time consuming with each state having its own set of
regulations and procedure. The issue related to the availability of land is expected to
increase tremendously in the coming years, considering the competing demands from
other sectors of the economy.
Over 65% of the Indian population reside in rural areas/ villages, mostly engaged in
agriculture and associated activities for their livelihoods. Large scale land use changes
brought in by solar and wind projects may impact the lives of local community. As such,
there is a need to prioritize the use of barren and wasteland for setting up solar and
wind energy projects, though the same is spread unevenly in the country, concentrated
in few states and districts.
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1.2 Objectives of the Study
TERI University, under grant support from the Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation
(SSEF), conducted a study to understand major issues in the context of land required
for setting up renewable energy projects, focusing on solar photovoltaic and wind
energy sectors, identifying best practices with regard to policy and regulations as well
as field practices.
The outcome of this project is accelerated deployment of renewable energy capacity,
through widely acceptable developmental models, with the outputs as under –
• Developing model guidelines on land procurement/ use for setting up renewable
energy projects (focusing on solar and wind sectors)
• Best practices with respect to land procurement followed in RE projects
• Innovative business models to minimize the socio-economic impacts of RE
development
1.3 Study Approach
As part of this exercise, wind and solar energy policies and the programs and
regulations of the identified states were examined in detail. Applicable land use
regulations pertaining to the renewable energy sector as brought out by the respective
land and revenue departments of the state governments and relevant clauses
pertaining to land in the renewable energy policies were analysed. Solar Park
Guidelines were perused to understand different land procurement models employed
across the states.
Land use pattern in the country was analysed with the help of ‘Land-Use Atlas and
‘Wasteland Atlas’ indicating potential areas for setting up projects. This was analysed
in conjunction with the amenable solar and wind locations as per the solar and wind
potential assessment conducted by the government agencies.
As part of consultation, discussions were held with a number of stakeholders across the
business spectrum – policy makers, state nodal agencies, independent power
producers, financial institutions, sector consultants and civil society organizations.
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This was conducted by way of administering questionnaires and follow-up meetings/
discussions with the representatives; refer Annexure-I for details.
Inputs were solicited from few of the prominent project developers, equipment
manufacturing companies/ suppliers and EPC players to delineate the process of land
procurement using different categories of land. This analysis covered the levels of
approvals, statutory obligations and cost factors. Best practices as followed in land
procurement were identified and are being highlighted in Chapter-10 of this report.
This was followed by a ‘Stakeholder Consultation Workshop’ with an objective to share
the key findings of the study and undertake deliberations on the proposed
recommendations. Details are provided in Annexure -II.
With regard to socio-economic impacts on the community, environmental and social
impact assessment (ESIA) reports of some of the large solar and wind projects, as
available on the public domain, were studied. Ground realities were verified by
undertaking field visits to wind farms, solar projects and solar parks; this included
discussion with the local community and farmers; details provided in Annexure-III.
Community business models, as vogue in some countries, were examined to explore
the feasibility of similar themes in India.
1.4 Boundary Conditions
The following Boundary Conditions were observed for the study: -
1.4.1 Renewable Energy Technologies
The study was restricted to solar photovoltaic and wind energy sectors as these sectors
have a major share in the Indian RE basket and would be contributing extensively to
the Indian power system in the coming years as per the policy targets framed by the
government.
1.4.2 Land Ownership Types
The study was limited to investigate issues with regard to use of private land and
revenue land for setting up solar PV and wind energy projects. Forest land, Panchayat
land and Tribal land were excluded from the study. The exercise also did not cover the
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land procurement mechanism towards right of way for roads and power evacuation
infrastructure.
1.4.3 Focal States
Land being a state subject under the Indian constitution, each state has its own set of
governing policies and regulations. The study was focussed on four states, though land
procurement related practices of some other states were also analysed.
Rajasthan: It is the largest state in India in terms of land area, which is endowed with
renewable energy resources, both solar insolation and wind velocity. The state
government is aggressively promoting the RE sector with several policy initiatives,
including provision of land banks, ease in land procurement procedure, deemed land
use change and setting up solar parks. The state also has a high share of wasteland,
which can be suitably utilised for setting up RE projects.
Karnataka: The state is leading is terms of installed RE capacity supported by a
conducive policy structure. It is having a large land area, blessed with adequate levels
of solar insolation as well as wind velocity. The Solar Park being developed at Pavagada
(district Tumkur) is one of largest parks in the world, where the land has been taken
on lease from private land owners. The state government also came out with a scheme
for farmers to set up solar plants on their fields. Both these cases use innovative models
for land procurement.
Andhra Pradesh: The state is blessed with good levels of solar radiation and some
districts experience appreciable wind velocities. It has employed unique strategy (land
pooling) to aggregate land for its new capital city and is using e-governance systems to
make the procurement procedure quick and transparent. It has come out with investor
friendly wind and solar energy policies, including a single window facility at SNA level.
Punjab: The state is promoting solar sector with a number of policy interventions,
including waiver of stamp-duty charges, deemed conversion of land and prompt
pollution clearance approvals. Due to high cost of land, private land leasing scheme has
been initiated, which has witnessed a good response. The government is promoting
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land neutral projects in form of rooftops and canal top projects, easing pressure on
land.
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2.0 Indian Renewable Energy Sector
India’s impressive economic growth in the recent decades has resulted in massive
increase in its power generation capacity, with the installed capacity surpassing the 330
GW mark (as on 31.07.2017). Within this bucket, thermal based power generation
sources account for about 70% share (coal– 60%, gas– 8%), with the remaining
capacity shared between large hydro and renewable energy sources. The renewable
energy sector, with an installed capacity of 59 GW (as on 31.07.2017), constitutes 18%
of the total capacity and the same is depicted in the Figure 1. The total power generation
was over 1200 billion units during the FY 2016-17, with about 7% contribution from
RE sources
4
. Because of a large population base, the per capita electricity of India
during the financial year 2016-17 was 1100 kWh
5
, which is a third of the global average.
Figure 1: Indian Power Scenario
The RE sector in India has grown phenomenally over the last decade, witnessing over
20% growth on an annual basis, as shown in Figure-2
6
. Wind sector has got the
maximum share in the Indian RE basket, with solar picking up since last three years
7
;
detailed break-down is provided in Table 1.
4
Executive Summary for the Month of July 2017, Central Electricity Authority
5
Ministry of Power, Government of India
6
175 GW Renewables by 2022, Report by Prayas, July 2017
7
Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India
59%
7%
2%
14%
18%
Capacity (GW)
Coal Gas Nuclear Hydro RE
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Table 1: RE Installed Capacity- India
RE Technology
Installed Capacity (MW)
(as on 31-07-2017)
Wind Power
32,562
Solar Power
13,652
Small Hydro Power
4,389
Bio-Power
8,182
Waste to Power
114
Total
58,990
Figure 2: Indian RE Sector Growth Trends
Being categorized among the top five greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters globally
8
, India
has been promoting renewable energy sector by way of several policy enablers. These
include fiscal and financial incentives, preferential tariff, renewable power purchase
obligations, generation based incentives as well as renewable energy certificates. As a
result, India is among the top five nations globally in terms of installed RE capacity.
8
Green House Gas Emissions Chart, World Resources Institute, 2017
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2.1 Key Policies and Regulations
The Electricity Act, 2003 and several policies of the Government promote renewable
energy in the country. Under Section 86(1) of the Act, it is desired to promote
cogeneration and generation of electricity from renewable sources of energy. The
National Electricity Policy 2005 stipulates to progressively increase the share of
electricity from non-conventional sources needs.
The State Electricity Regulatory Commissions (SERCs) are taking steps to promote RE
sources of energy within their area of jurisdiction. Various SERCs have issued orders/
regulations specifying a certain minimum percentage procurement of renewable
power, separately for solar and non-solar sources. This includes offering preferential
tariffs to wind project developers for a fixed number of years; though bidding has been
introduced in the wind sector. With regard to the solar energy sector, auctions have
been typically used to award projects to developers, with the tariff set by CERC/ SERC
taken as the base value.
The Tariff Policy 2006 advices the Appropriate Commission to fix a minimum
percentage for purchase of energy from renewable and the National Rural
Electrification Policy advocates use of off-grid solutions based on stand-alone systems
powered by renewable energy sources for supply of electricity.
Foreign investors are entitled to set up renewable energy based power generation
projects in India with upto 100% foreign direct investment (FDI) allowed under
automatic route.
In January 2010, the Government of India launched the National Solar Mission (NSM)
as part of its National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) and set out a target to
achieve 20 GW of grid-connected solar power by 2022. This target was revised to 100
GW by 2022 in late 2014. Of this, 60 GW has been targeted through grid-connected
ground mounted systems and the remaining 40 GW would be coming from the rooftop
solar PV based systems.
There is a carbon tax in the form of cess INR 400 per tonne on coal produced (or
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imported) in India. This cess feeds the National Clean Environment Fund (NCEF),
which is used for supporting clean environment initiatives in the country, including
programmes run the by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.
At the Conference of Parties (CoP) held in Paris under the United Nations Framework
Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC), countries reached a historic agreement to
combat climate change and to accelerate and intensify the actions and investments
needed for a sustainable low carbon future. India has submitted as well as ratified its
nationally determined commitments (NDC). These submissions state that India shall
intend to reduce the emissions intensity of its GDP by 33% to 35% by 2030 from the
2005 level and achieve 40% cumulative electric power installed capacity from non-
fossil sources by the year 2030, with the help of transfer of technology and low cost
international finance including from Green Climate Fund. As part of interim targets,
the Government of India has aimed to achieve an installed base of 175 GW by the year
2022
9
, with year-on-year targets highlighted in Figure 3.
In the latest revision of the Tariff Policy, the Ministry of Power has issued Renewable
Purchase Obligations (RPO) trajectory up to the year 2019, notifying uniform RPO
levels across the country besides exempting wind and solar energy projects from
payment of inter-state transmission charges and losses.
Figure 3: Indian RE Sector Targets
9
Prayas Report based on MNRE Targets, 2017
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3.0 LAND PROFILE OF INDIA
Land is the most important natural resource which embodies soil and water, and
associated flora and fauna involving the ecosystem on which all human activities are
based. Land is a finite resource covering only about 20% of the earth’s surface. Land is
crucial for all developmental activities, for natural resources, ecosystem services and
for agriculture. Increasing population, growing needs and demands for economic
development, clean water, food and other products from natural resources, as well as
degradation of land and negative environmental impacts are posing increasing
pressures to the land resources in many countries of the world.
India has to sustain over 17% of world’s population with only 2.4% of world’s total
geographical area (3.287 million sq. km). It may be noted that the Indian population
grew to 1210 million (2011 Census) from 345 million at the time of its independence (in
the year 1947), resulting in a very high population density of 368 persons per square
kilometre. The population to land ratio is what makes land accounting a matter linked
to human development concerns.
India, being the seventh largest country in the world in terms of area, land resource
management becomes very important. The developmental targets of India on one hand
and the social, cultural and environmental aspects on the other hand demand land and
the competing demands may lead to unfortunate conflicts.
India comprises seven climate regions, which have been further divided into 3 groups:
a) Tropical wet-humid group with tropical wet humid or monsoon climate, and
tropical wet and dry or savannah climate
b) Dry climate group with tropical semi-arid (steppe) climate, sub-tropical arid
(desert) climate and sub-tropical semi-arid (steppe) climate
c) Sub-tropical humid climate group with sub-tropical humid (wet) with dry
winters climate and the mountain, or highland, or alpine climate
The country has also been categorized into nine bio-geographic regions, i.e. the Trans-
Himalayan Region, the Himalayas, the semi-arid areas, the Western Ghats, the North-
West Desert Regions, the Deccan Plateau, the Gangetic Plain, North-East India, the
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islands, and the coasts.
3.1 Land Use Types
The land area in India has been classified into nine categories as depicted in Figure 4
10
.
Figure 4: Land Use and Land Cover for India
10
Land Use Codes, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India
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Forests: Forests are defined as all lands classed as forests under any legal enactment
dealing with forests or administered as forests, implying those lands which need not
have a tree cover. Forest area has increased considerably from 40.45 million hectares
in 1950-51 to 69.0 million hectares in 1999-2000 recording a 70% increase in a span of
half a century. However, 22% of forest land to the total reporting area is not sufficient
for a tropical country like India where about 33% of the total land should be under
forests. This will require massive tree plantations and vigorous restrictions on the
reckless felling of trees.
Land for Non-Agricultural Use: It includes lands occupied by buildings, roads,
and railways or under water and for non-agricultural purposes
Barren and Unculturable Land: These are lands like mountains, deserts, which
cannot be brought under cultivation except at an exorbitant cost. The largest amount
of land in this category lies in the states of Andhra Pradesh followed by Rajasthan,
Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Permanent Pastures and Other Grazing Lands: These types of land use include
all grazing lands where they are permanent pastures and meadows. Village common
grazing land is included under this head. A total area of 11 million hectares is devoted
to permanent pastures and other grazing lands. This amounts to about 4% of the total
reporting area of the country. Grazing takes place mostly in forests and other
uncultivated land wherever pasturage is available. The area presently under pastures
and other grazing lands is not sufficient keeping in view the large population of
livestock in the country.
Miscellaneous Tree Crops and Other Groves: The Miscellaneous types include
all cultivable land, which is not included in ‘Net Area Sown’ but is put to some
agricultural uses. Lands under Casuarina trees, thatching grasses, bamboo bushes, and
other groves for fuel, which are not included under ‘Orchards’ are classified under this
category. Land under this category declined sharply from 19.8 million hectares in 1950-
51 to 3.62 million hectares or 1.2% of the total reporting area in 1999-2000. Odisa has
the largest area in this category followed by Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Andhra
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Pradesh, Assam and Tamil Nadu.
Culturable Wasteland: This includes land available for cultivation, whether taken
up or not taken up for cultivation once, but not cultivated during the last five years or
more in succession including the current year. The lack of use of such lands may be due
to constraints like lack of water, salinity or alkalinity of soil, soil erosion, water-logging,
any unfavourable physiographic position, or human neglect. Such lands may be either
fallow or covered with shrubs, which are not put to any use. Land once cultivated but
not cultivated for five years in succession should be included in this category at the end
of the five years.
Fallow Land Other Than Current Fallow: Fallow lands are defined as all lands,
which were taken up for cultivation but are temporarily out of cultivation for a period
of not less than one year and not more than five years. Fallow land is left uncultivated
from 1 to 5 years to help soil recoup its fertility in the natural way depending upon the
nature of soil and the nature of fanning. It has recorded an increase from 10.68 million
hectares in 1950-51 to 14.79 million hectares in 1999-2000. The largest area of over 2.5
million hectares of ‘fallow land other than current fallow’ is in Rajasthan followed by
1.4 million hectares in Andhra Pradesh and over one million hectares in Maharashtra.
Current Fallow: The Current Fallow represents cropped area, which has been kept
fallow during the current year.
Net Area Sown: The net sown are represents the total area sown with crops and
orchards. Area sown more than once in the same year is counted only once. The net
area sown has increased from 118.7 million hectares in 1950-51 to 159.59 million
hectares in 2010-11 (figure in 1999-2000 was 141.2 million hectares).
Details of decadal changes in the land use types is highlighted in Table 2 and Table 3
11
.
11
Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India
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Table 2: All India Land Utilization (1950-51 to 1990-91)
Type of Land
1950–51
1960–61
1970–71
1980–81
1990–91
Area in million hectares
Forests
40.5
54.1
63.9
67.5
67.8
Non-agricultural uses
9.4
14.8
16.5
19.7
21.1
Barren and
unculturable land
38.2
35.9
28.2
19.7
19.4
Permanent pastures
and other grazing land
6.7
14.0
13.3
12.0
11.4
Land under
miscellaneous tree,
crops and groves
19.8
4.5
4.3
3.6
3.8
Culturable wasteland
22.9
19.2
17.5
16.7
15.0
Fallow land
28.1
22.8
19.9
24.8
23.4
Net sown area
118.8
133.2
140.3
140.0
143.0
Table 3: All India Land Utilization (2000-01 to 2009-10)
Type of Land
2000–01
2004–05
2008–09
2009–10
Area in million hectares
Forests
69.8
70.0
70.0
70.0
Non-agricultural uses
23.8
24.8
26.1
26.2
Barren and unculturable land
17.5
17.5
16.8
16.8
Permanent pastures and
other grazing land
10.7
10.5
10.2
10.2
Land under miscellaneous
tree, crops and groves
3.4
3.4
3.4
3.4
Culturable wasteland
13.6
13.3
12.8
12.9
Fallow land
25.0
25.7
24.5
26.2
Net sown area
141.3
140.6
141.9
140.0
Area under different types of land in states varies a lot with some states having a high
percentage of wasteland while other states having large area used for agriculture
purposes. Details for some of the large states are presented in Table 4
12
.
12
Niti Aayog Portal
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Table 4: State Wise Pattern of Land Utilization (FY 2008-09)
States
Total
Forests
NA
Pastures
Miscellaneous
Wasteland
Fallow
Current
Fallows
Sown
Area
Area in ‘000 hectares
Andhra
Pradesh
27507
6210
4797
569
299
650
1488
2624
10868
Karnataka
19050
3072
2163
923
290
413
516
1500
10174
Gujarat
18871
1833
3758
853
4
1976
19
623
9801
Madhya
Pradesh
30756
8696
3401
1337
19
1160
621
582
14941
Maharashtra
30758
5213
3151
1246
248
917
1187
1370
17426
Punjab
5033
295
516
7
5
3
NA
37
4169
Rajasthan
34270
2728
4265
1699
18
4336
2108
1565
17551
Tamil Nadu
13027
2106
2665
110
259
333
1498
1013
5043
Uttar
Pradesh
24170
1658
3268
65
374
440
540
1408
16417
3.2 Wasteland
The Department of Land Resources, under the Ministry of Rural Development,
Government of India, has developed the Wasteland Atlas of India
13
, giving the state
wise land profile, categorized under different types of wasteland. An estimated 47.22
million hectares, accounting for 14.91% of the total geographical area of the country,
has been mapped as wastelands during the period 2005-06. As per the Wasteland
Atlas, the share of wasteland as a percentage of total land area has decreased from
17.6% in the year 2003 to 14.91% during the year 2006.
Within the total land categorized as wasteland, the maximum share is scrubland,
degraded land and barren rocky land. States like Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Jammu &
Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra have a significant share of wasteland in
their states. The Atlas depicts that 10 districts have more than 50% of their land
categorized as wasteland and another 81 districts of the country have 20-50% of their
land categorized as wasteland. Details of wasteland categories and their state-wise
distribution is provided in Figure 5 and Figure 6.
13
Wasteland Atlas of India - 2010, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India
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Figure 5: Distribution of Wasteland in India
Figure 6: Wasteland Categories
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3.3 Land Holdings
The total number of operational holdings in the country increased from 129.22 million
in the year 2005-06 to 138.35 million in the year 2010-11. A large number of land
holdings categorized are held by small and marginal farmers (below 2.00 hectares),
resulting in small size agriculture farms, which leads to low yields and limited avenues
for technological interventions.
Almost 85% of total number of land holdings are held by the small and marginal
farmers, occupying 45% of the total sown area. The semi-medium and medium
operational holding (2.00 –10.00 hectares) in 2010-11 were 14.29% with the operated
area at 44.88%. The large holdings (>=10.00 hectares) were 0.70% of total number of
holdings in 2010-11 with a share of remaining 10.59% of the operated area. Decadal
trends are available in Table 5 and Table 6
14
.
Table 5: Distribution of Agriculture Land Holdings
Year
Total
Average
size
Distribution of holdings (%)
No. of holdings
('000)
Area ('000 ha)
Marginal
Small
Semi-
medium
Medium
Large
1970–71
71,011
162,178
2.3
51.0
18.9
15.0
11.2
3.9
1980–81
88,883
163,797
1.8
56.4
18.1
14.0
9.1
2.4
1990–91
106,638
165,507
1.6
59.4
18.8
13.1
7.1
1.6
2000–01
119,931
159,435
1.3
62.9
18.9
11.7
5.5
1.0
2005–06
129,222
158,323
1.2
64.8
18.5
10.9
4.9
0.8
2010–11
137,757
159,181
1.2
67.0
17.9
10.0
4.3
0.7
Table 6: Share of Agriculture Land Holdings
Year
Total
Average
size
Distribution of operational area (%)
No. of holdings
('000)
Area ('000 ha)
Marginal
Small
Semi-
medium
Medium
Large
1970–71
71,011
162,178
2.3
9.0
11.9
18.5
29.7
30.9
1980–81
88,883
163,797
1.8
12.0
14.1
21.2
29.6
23.0
1990–91
106,638
165,507
1.6
15.0
17.4
23.2
27.0
17.3
14
Agriculture Census, 2010-11, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India
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2000–01
119,931
159,435
1.3
18.7
20.2
24.0
24.0
13.2
2005–06
129,222
158,323
1.2
20.2
20.9
23.9
23.1
11.8
2010–11
137,757
159,181
1.2
22.2
22.1
23.6
21.2
10.9
As per the 2011 Census, 68.84% of the country’s population lives in 6,40,867 villages
and the remaining 31.16% population lives in 7,935 urban centres. Although agriculture
presently accounts for only about 14% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), it is the
main source of livelihood for the majority of the rural population, and provides the
basis of food security for the nation. The agriculture sector employs about 49% of the
total workforce and 64% of the rural workforce
15
. Therefore, fertile agriculture land and
clean water resources need to be protected effectively for providing and ensuring
livelihood to rural population as well as towards the food security for the nation.
3.4 Land Utilization Analysis
Between 1950-51 and 2007-08, land utilisation in India underwent significant changes.
The net sown area accounts for about 46% of the total reporting area of India against
the world average of about 32%. This is much higher than 40% in the USA, 25% in
Russia, 16% in Brazil and 6% in Canada. However, the per capita cultivated land has
gone down drastically (about 70%) from 0.53 hectares in 1951 to 0.16 hectares in 2008.
Moreover, the average size of operational holding declined to 1.15 hectares in 2010-11
as compared to 1.23 hectares in 2005-06. As such, there is an urgent need to increase
the net sown area further for meeting the food and other requirements of rapidly
increasing population in India; although there is limited scope for increasing area due
to natural limitations such as topography, soils, climate, etc.
There has also been a marked decline in the area categorized as barren land (from 13.1%
in 1950 to 5.6%) and culturable wasteland (from 22.9 million hectares in 1950-51 to
13.8 million hectares in 1999-2000). The decline in the wasteland can be attributed to
several land reclamation schemes launched in India after Independence for ensuring
food security. The wastelands are concentrated in a few states and districts of the
country; state of Rajasthan has 4.9 lakh hectare of cultivable waste land, more than a
third of the total waste land of India. Other states with considerable culturable waste
15
Niti Aayog Report
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land include Gujarat (13.6%), Madhya Pradesh (10.2%), Uttar Pradesh (6.93%) and
Maharashtra (6.83%). Wasteland is ideal for setting up wind and solar energy based
projects, though not all of its types can be used easily.
With a renewed focus of the India government on scaling up manufacturing facilities
in India (Make in India) and massive plans to ramp up the highways and railways in
the country, it becomes all the more important to utilize the available land with utmost
prudence and care.
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4.0 LAND RELATED LEGISLATION AND ACTS
According to Entry No. 18 of State List (List II) under Article 246 of the Constitution
of India, land falls under the legislative and administrative competence of the States.
The article states - “Land, that is to say, rights in or over land, land tenures including
the relation of landlord and tenant, and the collection of rents; transfer and alienation
of agricultural land; land improvement and agricultural loans; colonization”.
There are several policies relating to land use, including the National Water Policy
2013, the National Land Use Policy Outlines 1988, the National Forest Policy 1988, the
Policy Statement of Abatement of Pollution 1992, the National Livestock Policy
Perspective, 1996, the National Agricultural Policy 2000, the National Population
Policy 2000, the National Policy and Macro-Level Strategy and Action Plan on
Biodiversity 2000 and the National Environmental Policy 2006.
4.1 Land Utilization Policies
Concerned with the issue of the optimal utilisation and scientific management of land
resources, the Government of India had created (in the latter years of 1980’s) the
National Land Use and Wasteland Development Council (NLWC) under the
Chairmanship of Prime Minister and the National Land Use and Conservation Board
(NLCB) under the chairmanship of Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission. The
National Wasteland Development Board (NWDB) was simultaneously formed in the
Department of Environment and Forests. The National Land Use Policy Outline
(NLPO) was adopted by the National Land Use and Wasteland Development Council
in the year 1986
16
.
In 1974, the Ministry of Agriculture asked the State Governments for setting up the
‘State Land Use Board’ to provide policy direction, ensure close coordination among
various departments and to achieve integrated planning for optimal use of available
natural resources, which lead to the creation of State Land Use Boards (SLUBs) in the
states in subsequent years.
16
National Land Utilisation Policy (Draft), Department of Land Resources, 2013
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It has been observed that these Boards have been not very effective, though in recent
years, few of the state governments have taken steps to activate them. The Karnataka
government has decided to revive its Board with an objective to bring 10 lakh hectares
of wasteland under economic use. This has been necessitated because of the planned
acquisition of a large quantity of farmland by the Karnataka Industrial Area
Development Board's for setting up industrial townships across the State. Similarly,
the government of Andhra Pradesh has planned to set-up the Andhra Pradesh Land
Management Authority (APLMA), with powers to recommend land allotment and the
government endeavours providing it with legal sanctity.
The Department of Land Resources, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of
India, came out with a draft document on ‘National Land Utilization Policy’, in the year
2013. The document provided a framework for land use planning and management
highlighting the need for optimal utilisation of land resources. As per the Policy, the
lands in the country will be divided into Land Utilisation Zones (LUZs) based on the
predominant use of those lands. Such LUZs will be subjected to land use planning in
the form of Regional Development Plans and Development Plans. Various land uses
will be reflected in these plans based on which further development will be guided.
However, the government is yet to finalize this report. Further, the state governments
also need to pro-actively work on developing their land use policy.
4.2 Land Ownership Types
Typically, based upon ownership, land can be categorized into the following-
Government land
(i) Forest
(ii) Non-forest, called as Revenue Land
(iii) Given on Patta to landless farmers
Community land
(i) Local community land (Panchayat)
Private land
(i) Agriculture (Transferable)
(ii) Non-agriculture (Transferable)
(iii) Tribal Land (Transferable only to tribals)
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4.3 Land Procurement Acts and Legislations
Etymologically speaking, there is no distinction between the terms 'procurement' and
'acquisition'. While in the case of 'acquisition', the land can be acquired without the
consent of all the land owners, 'procurement' usually refers to purchase of land through
bilaterally negotiated means from the owners. A private entity cannot acquire land, but
it can procure land. However, the government can acquire land for a private company
meant to be used for public purpose.
If a private entity intends to purchase land from an individual, the same is allowed as
a commercial transaction (at prevalent market prices, which shall not be lower than
the circle rate) on consent basis. However, in case of a change in land use (say from
agriculture to industry), approval needs to be obtained from the competent authorities.
Similarly, if a government agency wants to procure land from an individual (or, a group
of individuals) for any purpose, the same can be undertaken by purchasing the land at
agreed upon rates (not lower than the circle rate). In some of the cases, the government
department procures land to create a land bank as an incentive for the investors.
Government revenue land can be leased to private entities on rental basis under the
relevant policies of the concerned state (like industrial promotion policy, renewable
energy policy, etc.). If the land is required by another government department, the land
is transferred by the revenue department. Leasing of private land by farmers to project
developers has also been initiated in recent months in areas having high cost of land.
It helps the land owners earn assured returns by way of rentals, with an option to
renegotiate the terms after the expiry of the lease period.
The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition,
Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (LARR)
Under the Act, the government can acquire land for its own use, for public purpose, for
public private partnership (PPP) with a public purpose or on behalf of private
companies for a public purpose. The consent requirement from the affected families
(those who own the land) is 80% in case of private companies and 70% for PPP model
projects. No consent is required when land is for the government’s hold. Public purpose
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includes infrastructure projects (physical and social), which may include the renewable
energy sector (within the power generation sector).
However, there is a ban on acquisition of irrigated multi-cropped land, and the same
can be acquired only as a last resort, with a condition to develop equivalent area of
culturable wasteland for agricultural purpose. The area of irrigated multi-cropped land
to be acquired for all projects in aggregate during five years in a district shall not exceed
1% of the total irrigated multi-cropped land determined for the relevant block of 5
years. Further, the acquisition of agricultural land in aggregate for all projects in a
district shall not be more than 5% of the net sown area in a district determined for the
relevant block of 5 years.
The amount of compensation is arrived at after applying a certain multiplication factor
upon the market value of the land along with the value of assets attached to the land or
building. It is estimated that land acquisition under the LARR takes a minimal of four
to five years.
Railways: In case of Railways, land can be acquired by the Central Government under
the Railway (Amendment) Act 2008 for the projects classified as ‘Special Projects’ (like
Delhi Metro and DFCC projects). This has helped expedite land acquisition as the
acquisition cannot be challenged in any court. The amended Act ensured better deal
for those whose land was being acquired by incorporating benefits under National
Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy 2007.
The National Highways Act: The National Highways Act, 1956 and National
Highways Authority of India Act, 1988 were amended in 1997 giving land acquisition
powers to a competent authority, who could be any person designated by the
government. The authority’s verdict on the land so acquired will be final and cannot be
challenged in a court of law. The amount of compensation for the land is to be
determined as per the market value of the land. For national projects like highways and
roads, the centre notifies the area where land needs to be acquired. The state
government is then directed by the Centre to start the land acquisition process and
money is provided for the purpose. Apart from compensation, setting up of Land
Report - Addressing Land Issues for Utility Scale Renewable Energy Deployment in India
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Acquisition (LA) cells at its regional offices and increased delegation of authority to
subordinate officers are also giving impetus to land acquisition. These LA cells also act
as an interface between the central government and those farmers whose land is being
acquired to try and ensure that potential disputes do not land up in courts.
Land Ceiling Act: To avoid concentration of land in a few hands (prevailing in the
erstwhile Zamindari system), states have defined the maximum farmland holding
which can be owned by an individual/ family under their respective Land Ceiling Acts
(limits based upon type of land). The range of ceiling varies from state to state. For
instance, in Andhra Pradesh, the level of ceiling for dry land ranged from 14.16 hectares
to 21.85 hectares. Karnataka had the limit of 21.85 hectares for dry land, while Punjab
had 20.50 hectares and West Bengal 7.00 hectares. For irrigated lands with two crops,
the limit was lower; in Andhra Pradesh 4.05 to 7.28 hectares, in Maharashtra 7.28
hectares, in Punjab 7 hectares and in West Bengal 5.0 hectares.
Panchayat Raj Act: The 73rd constitutional amendment (Pancahyati Raj Act)
empowers rural local bodies or Pancahyati Raj Institutions (PRIs) on decision making
for clearing developmental projects by providing them legal status. Under the
Panchayat Act, the PRIs or Gram Sabha at the village level has to be consulted by the
project proponent before establishing a project in areas falling under its jurisdiction.
This gives villagers/ locals the right to raise their project development linked concerns.
Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Area) ACT, 1996: The Act states that
the Gram Sabha or the Panchayats at the appropriate level shall be consulted before
making the acquisition of land in the Scheduled Areas for development projects; prior
recommendation of the Gram Sabha or the Panchayats at the appropriate level shall be
made mandatory for grant of concession for the exploitation of minor minerals by
auction.
Land Pooling Policy: An additional instrument that the government agencies are
using to make acquisition more acceptable to landowners is land pooling. The idea here
is to purchase or acquire more land than is required for the project and eventually
transfer each landowner a fraction of their land back from the excess land after the
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project is complete. Because major public purpose projects such as highways/ airports
raise the value of the surrounding land, the value of the fraction of the original piece of
land returned could be higher than the value of the full piece prior to the completion of
the project, the landowners may find such a deal attractive. Land pooling can be
initiated by both private entities (as in the case of Haryana industrial zones and private
residential colonies in Delhi) and public agencies (land for Amravati, capital to be built
for Andhra Pradesh and the upcoming Navi Mumbai Airport).
Haryana- Land Pooling by Private Entities
In Haryana, a large number of private land aggregators have emerged who are
helping businesses buy land. The process of getting administrative clearance for
changing the end use of land (CLU, or change in land use) has been simplified.
Backward blocks with low industrial penetration have been identified. Businesses
buying land in these blocks get a full refund of stamp duty.
AP- Land Pooling by Public Entities
Andhra Pradesh government is identifying and acquiring land through a transparent
and farmer friendly land pooling/acquisition policy. It wants to create a land bank of
10 lakh acres in order to attract investments. GIS will be used to create land inventory
and update information of land parcels on real time basis. Key details and parameters
about land parcels (e.g. soil type, distance from sea-ports, airports, railway stations
etc.) will be made available online.
Environmental Legislations: Solar photovoltaic power and wind energy projects
are not covered under the ambit of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA)
Notification, 2006 and no environmental clearance is required for such projects under
the provisions thereof.
The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Government of India
(MoEFCC), has developed criteria for categorization of industrial sectors based on the
Pollution Index
17
, which is a function of the emissions (air pollutants), effluents (water
17
Classification of Industrial Sectors Under, Central Pollution Control Board, 2016
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pollutants), hazardous wastes generation and consumption of resources. Under this
index, solar power generation (through photovoltaic cell) and wind power have been
placed under ‘White Category’ industries, which are not required to obtain ‘Consent to
Operate’ from the concerned State Pollution Control Board (SPCB).
4.4 Land Records
During the later years of the decade of 1980, the Government of India, through the
Department of Land Resources under the Ministry of Rural Development, launched
the Computerisation of Land Records and Strengthening of Revenue Administration
and Updating of Land Records to improve revenue administration and the land records
in the country. These two programmes were merged into a single integrated
programme called the ‘The Digital India Land Records Modernization Programme
(DILRMP)’ in the year 2008
18
. The major components under this programme are
computerization of all land records including mutations, digitization of maps and
integration of textual and spatial data, survey/re-survey and updation of all survey and
settlement records including creation of original cadastral records wherever necessary,
computerization of registration and its integration with the land records maintenance
system, development of core Geospatial Information System and capacity building.
Some of the state governments have been working towards modernization of their land
records and achieved good results. These include the 'BHOOMI PROJECT' in
Karnataka, Mee-Seva in Andhra Pradesh and Cadastral Survey in Gujarat. More details
are available on the portal of Department of Land Resources
19
.
18
Department of Land Resources, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India
19
http://dilrmp.nic.in/testing/faces/rptPhysicalHome/rptStateGenericDetail.xhtml?id=./../master/ph
ysical.xhtml
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5.0 SOLAR AND WIND ENERGY POLICIES
Most states in India have come out with state specific solar energy
20
and wind energy
policies
21
, with definite clauses related to land and the same is discussed as under.
5.1 Solar Energy Policies
Andhra Pradesh Solar Power Policy, 2015
Under the Andhra Pradesh Solar Policy 2015, it is the responsibility of the project
developer to acquire private land. In case of land owned by Revenue Department, the
land allotment shall be done as per the prevailing government policy and facilitated by
the state nodal agency, New & Renewable Energy Development Corporation of Andhra
Pradesh, NREDCAP. Solar projects are provided with a deemed Non-Agricultural (NA)
status on payment of applicable fees. Solar PV power projects are also exempted by the
AP Pollution Control Board from obtaining the ‘Consent to Establish’ (CTE).
Rajasthan Solar Energy Policy, 2014
Under the Rajasthan Solar Energy Policy, revenue land may be allotted to solar park
developers as per the provisions of Rajasthan Land Revenue Rules 2007 (Allotment of
land for setting up power plant based on renewable energy sources). Further, the solar
park developers are empowered to sub-lease the land. The process requires the state
nodal agency, Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corporation (RREC), to make a
recommendation for allotment of government land to the concerned district collector
(DC). The Policy specifies the technology wise land area to be allotted to project
developers for setting up solar projects as in Table 7.
Table 7: Land for Solar Projects in Rajasthan
S
No
Technology
Maximum Permitted
Land
1
SPV on Crystalline Technology
2.5 hectare/ MW
2
SPV on Crystalline Technology with Tracker
3.5 hectare/ MW
3
SPV on Thin film /Amorphous Technology
3.5 hectare/ MW
20
Extracted from State Solar Energy Policies
21
Extracted from State Wind Energy Policies
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Private sector solar park developers are allowed to purchase agriculture land from the
land owner (referred to as Khatedar) for developing solar parks in excess of land
ceiling limits (in accordance with the provision of Rajasthan Imposition of Ceiling on
Agriculture Holding Act, 1973)
22
. Khatedar is also permitted to set up solar power
project on his holding and allowed to sub-let his holding for setting up such projects
without the requirement of land conversion (in accordance within the provisions of
Rajasthan Tenancy Act 1955 and Rajasthan Land Revenue Act 1956). In this case, the
Tehsildar and RREC are required to be informed about such intended use of land
within 30 days and no land use conversion is required (under a recent amendment
made by the Rajasthan Revenue department).
Government land is allowed to be allocated to private sector solar park developers for
development of solar parks. RREC will recommend to concerned district collector for
allotment of such land. The project developers are also allowed to sub-lease the land
allotted to them for the purpose of setting up solar/ wind project and the transferee is
required to pay 50% additional lease rent annually. This requires the approval of
Collector which is to be made on the recommendation made by RREC. Farmers can
lease their agricultural land to power generation companies (solar and wind energy)
for 30 years and the annual rent shall be charged at 5% per annum of the premium
for 2 years from the date of allotment (to be enhanced by 5% every year).
Karnataka Solar Policy (2014-21)
The Government of Karnataka has amended the Karnataka Land Reforms Act, 1961
and formulated a policy to facilitate setting up of Solar Parks. The Policy
contemplates time bound permissions to project developers and has empowered
Deputy Commissioners to approve purchase of agricultural land for development of
solar projects (u/s 109 of Land Reforms Act).
Under the Karnataka Land Reform (Amendment) Act, 2015 occupant of any
agriculture land can divert such land for the purpose of setting up of solar power
generation. The permission applied for conversion of such land shall be deemed to
22
Rajasthan Land Revenue Rules
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have been granted and the developers can start project execution work without
waiting for a formal approval on their application for conversion of agricultural land.
Necessary amendments have also been made in sections 79(a), 79(b) and 80 of the
Karnataka Land Reforms Act to enable RE developers purchase private land directly
from the owners of the land. It has also empowered Deputy Commissioners to allot
land upto 108 acres of land (raised from the earlier limit of 55 acres).
The state government has proposed to develop a district wise inventory of land lying
unused with Gram Panchayat, private waste lands and other unproductive single crop
agricultural lands for setting up RE projects. It further intends to provide land for
developing RE projects u/s Sec-71 of Land Revenue Act to Karnataka Renewable
Energy Development Limited (KREDL)
23
.
The Solar Policy of the state provides for creation of private land bank owned by
individual farmers/ group of farmers/ associations for development of solar projects
on long term lease basis (up to 30 years subject to renewal after lease period) at lease
rates fixed by the state government from time to time, in coordination with revenue
department. Moreover, a cell has been created at KREDL for creation of land bank
comprising both private and publicly owned land for setting up solar projects on lease
basis.
To ensure equitable development, the State Solar Policy promotes solar parks on
wasteland in backward districts. It also ran a programme which enabled land owning
farmers to set up solar plants (1-3 MW) for sale of power to the utility at a tariff
determined by the Karnataka State Electricity Regulatory Commission. Moreover, the
state government has restricted the solar capacity per taluk at 20 MW to ensure that
the projects are spread evenly across the state. Solar PV projects have been exempted
from obtaining clearances from the state pollution control board.
New and Renewable Energy Policy, Government of Punjab, 2012
Under the Policy, the state government provides 100% exemption to project
23
Karnataka Land Revenue Act
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developers from payment of fee and stamp duty for land registration/ lease deed.
Further, agriculture land is allowed to be used for setting up renewable energy
projects and no charges are levied towards change in land use (CLU). Solar PV
projects are also exempted from obtaining any NOC/ Consent laws from the state
pollution control board.
Madhya Pradesh Solar Power Policy, 2012
The New & Renewable Energy Department, Government of Madhya Pradesh, takes
possession of land from the Revenue Department and leases it to renewable energy
project developers for project development activity. Revenue land to be used for setting
up projects is allotted on the basis of maximum free energy offered to the state. The
upper limit for allocating revenue land for setting up solar based projects is three
hectares per megawatt.
In case a developer who has been given permission for land use for setting up of solar
project, intends to set up the solar project along with the third-party participation, then
land use permission for the party on which is solar project to set up by the third party,
will be given to third party on the same terms and conditions of the revenue department
on which permission is given to the developer. With regard to private land, the state
government provides an exemption of 50% on stamp duty towards purchase of private
land for the project.
Solar Parks Scheme
To circumvent project implementation issues encountered by investors, which includes
land procurement, MNRE, through its arm, the Solar Energy Corporation of India
(SECI), rolled out the ‘Solar Park Scheme’ under the National Solar Mission (NSM).
Solar Park is a large chunk of land identified for setting up of large number of solar
power projects, wherein the project developers are made available land with necessary
statutory clearances along with common infrastructure facilities to set up project under
a ‘Plug and Play’ business model.
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Under the Solar Parks Guidelines
24
, the host state government needs to identify land
for setting up Solar Park, preferably large size government owned wasteland with
appropriate insolation levels. The Solar Power Park Developer (SPPD), as the
Implementing Agency, is responsible for acquisition of land, getting land related
clearances, besides developing the approach roads and setting up the transmission
system. SPPD is typically a joint venture between SECI and host SNA. It is proposed to
develop 34 solar parks spread over 21 states with a cumulative capacity of 20,000 MW;
these targets have been revised upwards to 40,000 MW in the budget of FY 2016-17.
Salient features of Solar Park Scheme -
• Land identification by the State Government, at least 5 acres per MW
• Priority of using government wasteland to minimise acquisition of private land
• If land cannot be made available in one location, then land at few locations in
close vicinity may be taken
• Exploring possibility of using cold and hot deserts, sides of highways
• SPPD to sell/ lease plots to project developers for 30 years
• Cost of land in the range of 2% of project cost
Developers are also involved in setting up private solar parks where they identify
amenable sites which are then notified by the state governments to be used for setting
up solar projects on a plug-n-play mode. This type of model is prevalent in the state of
Rajasthan due to the availability of land with high insolation levels.
An analysis by ICRIER shows that the land intensity of solar PV project varies widely
across states and even within a state; it ranges from 1.2 hectares per MW to 3.1 hectares
per MW
25
.
Four of the solar parks, which are in advanced stages of implementation, have been
analysed on different aspects including mode of procurement and land intensity.
24
Solar Park Guidelines, MNRE/ SECI
25
Harvesting Solar Power in India, ICRIER, August 2016
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Ananthapuramu Park (Andhra Pradesh): A substantial part of the total land identified
for the Park 11,000 acres has been taken on lease from the state government, while the
remaining has been acquired from the local land owners.
Pavagada Park (Karnataka): Innovative private leasing model has been used. Land
has been taken on lease from land owning farmers by the Solar Park Developer Agency
(KSPDCL) for sub-leasing it to project developers. The rental has been fixed at INR
21,000 per acre per annum, with an escalation of 5% once in two years.
Bhadla Park (Rajasthan): The state government has provided its revenue land to the
SPPD on lease.
Rewa Park (Madhya Pradesh): The state government has acquired the land for the
750 MW solar park coming up at Rewa by taking the consent of land owners and
offering them premium over the prevalent market value of the land. About 1500 Ha
has been procured including 300 Ha of private land procured under the Madhya
Pradesh’s Consent of Land Purchase Policy, 2014 and the balance 1200 hectares of
revenue land.
Summary of the four solar parks analysed like the land intensity and lease rentals are
provided in Table 8.
Table 8: Solar Park Analysis
State
Park
Area
(Acres)
No of
Villages
Mode of
Procurement
Land Intensity
(acres/ MW)
Lease
Rentals
Andhra
Pradesh
Ananthapuramu
1500 MW
11528
2
Land
Acquisition
7.68
NA
Karnataka
Pavagada
2000 MW
11000
5
Farmer’s land
leased
5.5
INR 21,000/
Acre
Rajasthan
Bhadla Ph-II
680 MW
4446
1
Revenue land
Lease
6.52
Rs 81,000/
Acre (DLC
rate)
Madhya
Pradesh
REWA
750 MW
3828
-
Acquisition
under state
Consent Policy
5.10
NA
CERC Land Cost Benchmarks
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Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), while determining tariff for solar
PV projects, considers land requirement at 5 acres per MW. The parameters include
technology (Crystalline, Thin film), conversion efficiency and solar radiation incident
in respective area. With regard to type of land, CERC assumes use of arid/ barren
land having minimal commercial value. The cost of land in the tariff order for the FY
2016-17 was INR 25 Lakh/MW, which was same as considered during the FY 2015-16.
For the FYs 2014-15 and 2013-14, the cost was INR 16.80 Lakh/MW. This figure was
INR 16 Lakh for FY 2012-13 and INR 15 Lakh for the preceding two years (FYs 2011-
12 and 2010-11).
In the CERC tariff consultation process undertaken for solar PV technologies (FY
2016-17), some stakeholders suggested to consider the land price variation across
states and the mode of procurement (purchase of private land or, lease of revenue
land). Many stakeholders suggested increasing the cost due to higher compensation
mandated under the Land Acquisition Act, 2013. Another suggestion was to specify
norms based on the location of a project (based on the latitude of the place) and type
of technology used (trackers/ seasonal tilt mechanism generate more power, but
require larger area). It was also opined that land levelling required in arid and rocky
locations increases the project implementation cost, thus, offsetting the low cost of
land procurement in these areas.
The summary of the land related aspects of solar policies as brought out by the states
under consideration is provided in Table 9.
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Table 9: Summary of State Solar Policies
State
Policy
Land –
Private
Land –
Revenue
LUC
Pollution
Clearance
Agricult
ure Land
Land
Bank
Stamp
Duty
Land
Ceiling
Andhra
Pradesh
Solar
Policy
2015
Project
developer
to acquire
land
SNA to
facilitate
land
Deemed
NA status
for solar
projects
Solar
projects
exempted
from NoC/
Consent
deemed
NA status
Karnataka
Solar
Policy,
2014-
21
Creating
private
land
banks
owned by
farmers
for
developm
ent of
solar
projects
on lease
Solar
parks on
waste land
in
backward
districts
Deemed
conversio
n of land
for solar
projects;
developers
can start
execution
without
waiting for
approval
Solar
projects
exempted
from
obtaining
clearance
Allowed
purchase
of
agricultur
e land for
solar
projects
Cell at
KREDL
for
creation of
land bank
on lease
basis;
Govt to
provide
4500 Ha
Revenue
land for
RE
projects
Rajasthan
Solar
Energ
y
Policy,
2014
Khatedar
permitted
to sub-let
holding
for setting
up
projects
Governme
nt land to
private
developers
at
concession
al rate for
solar
parks;
sublease
for 30
years
not
required
Green
Category;
SPCB to
issue CTE &
CTO within
15 days of
application
Allowed
purchase
of
agricultur
e land for
solar
projects
GoR
reserved
10,000 ha
of
governme
nt land in
Jodhpur
and
16,000 ha
of in
Jaisalmer
as a land
bank
2.5 Ha
Madhya
Pradesh
Solar
Energ
y
Policy,
2012
Projects to
be allotted
maximum
free
energy
offered
per MW
SPV plants
classified as
‘White
industries’,
and
exempted
from CTE/
CTO
acquire
agricultur
e land
given on
lease
50%
exempti
on
3 Ha
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State
Policy
Land –
Private
Land –
Revenue
LUC
Pollution
Clearance
Agricult
ure Land
Land
Bank
Stamp
Duty
Land
Ceiling
Punjab
NRSE
Policy
--very low
quantum
of revenue
land
Projects are
exempted
from
obtaining
NOC from
PPCB
Allowed
purchase
of
agricultur
e land for
solar
projects
100%
exempti
on
CERC
5 Acre
It may be noted that even though the central government encourages setting up solar
projects on wasteland, most of the states (as mentioned above) permit use of
agriculture land by providing deemed land use change and other approvals.
5.2 Wind Energy Policies
MNRE Guidelines
In case of allotment of land or land use permission given by state government for the
purpose of development of wind power project, MNRE suggests a maximum period of
4 years may be allowed for development and start of commissioning of the project after
allotment/ permission to use land given by the Government. If the project is not
developed within the given time frame the land allotment/ land use permission may be
cancelled
26
. For existing project developers, where land is already allotted or land use
permission has been already given prior to issue of these guidelines, 30 months may
be given subject to an undertaking to develop the project within this period.
Karnataka Renewable Energy Policy 2009-14
For using revenue land, the developer has to approach Revenue/Forest/ Irrigation
Department to obtain the land on lease basis. KREDL shall develop the land at its
disposal (waste land) to facilitate establishment of RE projects. It will sub-lease the
developed land to developers for a period of 30 years and lease rentals will be as per
prime lending rate over current market price. At a particular time, not more than 3
sites shall be provided to a developer. In case of private land, developer has to acquire
26
Guidelines for Development of Onshore Wind Power Projects, MNRE, October 2016
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land and the cost towards diversion of agricultural land shall be INR 45000 per
Hectare.
Andhra Pradesh Wind Power Policy, 2015
The Government of Andhra Pradesh may consider proposals for allotment of revenue
land at the wind power potential areas on first come first serve basis, based on
recommendation of the state nodal agency, NREDCAP, as per the provisions of New
Land Allotment Policy.
To facilitate faster execution of projects, the District Collector shall handover advance
possession of land, including pathways, to NREDCAP and the land shall be allotted in
the joint name of NREDCAP and the developer. The DC shall permit the developer to
start the construction and NREDCAP shall withdraw its rights from the land once the
project gets commissioned. The allotted project needs to be commissioned within 18
months from the date of possession of land, otherwise, the site may be offered to any
other developer by NREDCAP.
NREDCAP shall be responsible for capacity allotment for upto 40 MW and for higher
capacity, approval needs to be taken from the state government. Deemed Non-
Agricultural (NA) status for the land will be accorded on payment of applicable
statutory fees. Wind power projects will be exempted from obtaining any NoC/Consent
for Establishment under the pollution control laws from Andhra Pradesh Pollution
Control Board. Wind power projects installed entirely or partly on government/
revenue land or forest areas, shall be required to sell power within the state only.
Madhya Pradesh Wind Power Project Policy, 2012
Permission for land use on Government revenue land shall be provided by New and
Renewable Energy Department, which can be transferrable to a third party.
Government land, if available, shall be provided for 30 years at a token premium of
INR 1 per annum on footprint basis, approach road to the aero-generator, transmission
lines, sub-station installation and for other affiliated uses.
Data of the sites where the SNA has installed wind monitoring masts shall be available
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to applicants. If more than one application is received, allotment shall be on
competition basis (premium offered by the bidder). No applicant shall be eligible for
applying more than 100-Megawatt project against one-time advertisement on
government land. Wherever required, private land shall be acquired by the
Government and provided to the developer at acquisition cost. Developer shall be
eligible for a rebate of 50% in stamp duty payable for procurement of private land.
Applicant shall have to ensure that wind turbine generator being installed at the project
site proposed by them should be at a technically safe distance from the other nearest
identified/ installed wind turbine generators. The prime lending institution shall have
the right to substitute the developer for land use permission during the loan period.
Project installation on lands owned by schedule tribes shall be carried out only under
exceptional circumstances and on the basis of mutual consent and agreement.
Rajasthan Wind Policy, 2012
RREC will act as Nodal Agency for single window clearance of the projects for
allotment of revenue land (limit of 5 Hectares/ MW) to Wind Power Developers as
per provisions of Rajasthan Land Revenue (Allotment of Land for setting up of Power
plant based on Renewable Energy Sources) Rules, 2007. It will recommend the case
of land allotment to the concerned District Collector. Land shall be allotted at
concessional rate of 10% of DLC rate (agriculture land). Sub-lease of land in favour of
power producer shall be done by the concerned District Collector on recommendation
of RREC.
Wind Power Developer is allowed to purchase private land from the land owner
(Khatedar) at mutually agreed price in excess of ceiling limit prescribed in the Ceiling
Act, 1973. Conversion of land to industrial use is not required before start of work as
per an amendment in the Rajasthan Revenue department dated 08/10/2014.
The summary of the land related aspects of wind energy policies as brought out by the
states under consideration is provided in Table 10.
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Table 10: Wind Policy Summary
State
Policy
Land –
Private
Land –
Revenue
LUC
Pollution
Clearance
Limit
Charges
Andhra
Pradesh
Wind
Policy
2012
Deemed
Non-
Agricultural
(NA) status
Exempted
Madhya
Pradesh
Wind
Policy
2012
Allowed
permission
to use
revenue
land by
NRE deptt
Footprint
basis
50% rebate %
in stamp duty
payable for
procuring
private land
Rajasthan
Wind
Policy
2012
Developer
allowed to
purchase
private
land from
Khatedar
for setting
up wind
plant in
excess of
ceiling
limit
Land
allotment
as per
Rajasthan
Land
Revenue
Act at
Conversion
of private
land to
industrial
use
required;
conversion
charges @
10% charges
Concessional
rate of 10% of
the DLC rate
(agriculture
land)
Sub-Lease in
favor of Power
Producer
permitted
Stamp duty
levied on land
cost only
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6.0 LAND PROCUREMENT PROCEDURE
Land is scarce in India with competitive uses by various user segments. As such, land
should be used in an optimal manner for the benefit of all stakeholders.
Land is one of the key parameters impacting the location of a renewable project and
eventually its returns. The choice of a particular location for a project depends upon
the availability of resource (solar radiation and wind velocity), its topography and
terrain, soil strength, site accessibility, its market value (which depends upon
ownership and its arability) and the returns it is generating currently. Other
parameters include power evacuation infrastructure, availability of water and ease of
land procurement.
In terms of ownership, land is classified as revenue land, private land and forest land.
States have different policies for land purchase/allotment. The applicable policies and
procedures with regard to land procurement/ acquisition / allotment may differ for
forest, revenue and private types of land.
Revenue land and forest land are owned by government (either centre or state
government) and are provided on lease basis. Project developers procure (purchase)
private land from land owner(s), sometimes facilitated by a land arranger (termed as
aggregator). This involves a commercial transaction at prevailing market/ circle rates
with the consent of the land owner(s). Conversion of land use status, from agricultural
to non- agricultural (industrial) is a prerequisite.
6.1 Private Land
Private land can be purchased directly from the owner of the land. Due to low level of
land holdings, the identified site may be owned by more than one individual which may
require negotiating with each of them. Lack of systematic land record keeping often
leads to delays and, in few cases, litigations.
Details with regard to procurement of private land for setting up wind project is
provided in Table 11.
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Table 11: Steps in Private Land Procurement for Wind Project
Steps
Private Land Procurement – Wind Project
1
Identifying the land based on micro siting
2
Initial negotiations with land owner (through aggregator)
3
Title verification (in sub-register office)
4
Sale Deed proceedings with land owner
5
Application at DC office for conversion in the name of purchaser
6
DC forwards to Tehsildar, Town Planning Office and concerned local Development Authority (like Gram
Panchayat, Municipal Commissioner)
7
NoC from Industrial Office & Pollution Control Board
8
Tehsildar forwards to Revenue Inspector and Taluk Surveyor
9
Tehsildar site inspection and recommendation to AC Office
10
AC site inspection and recommendation to DC office
11
DC raise the Demand Notice (Conversion Charge) and instructs Town Planning Office to submit final
Plan/Layout
12
DC issues the Final Order Copy
13
Registration of land in the name of customer
14
Mutation in favor of company in revenue records
15
Payment for conversion of land (on Basic land value as per Sub Registrar Office data)
With regard to procuring private land for setting up solar project, the steps are
highlighted in Figure 7.
Figure 7: Steps in Private land procurement–Solar project
Based upon the land type, land size and applicable regulations of the state government,
Site
identificat
ion
Due
diligence
of land
document
s (title
deeds)
aggregato
r (initial
negotiatio
ns)
Consent
to sale
from all
the
owners
Registrati
on of land
by SPD
Registrati
on with
SNA
Mutation
in name
of SPD
Applicatio
n to DC
for LUC
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it takes about 4-8 months in procuring private land for setting up a solar project. This
constitutes a significant portion of the total commissioning period of 12-15 months as
available to the project developers.
Land Use Change
The end use classification needs to be changed to non-agricultural (industrial) category
in case of private land for which the project developer submits a letter requesting the
district administration for land use conversion of the proposed land along with the land
purchase documents, NoC from village Panchayat, recommendation from local Sub-
Divisional Magistrate /Tehsildar as well as the respective SNA. A fee is paid to the
district administration. Some states are offering deemed NA facility to the developers,
especially in case of solar projects.
After the land lease is made, Patwari visits the site for verification or Pattargarhi before
registering the land. Mutation document is also made and finally the land is registered
for industrial end use with the state revenue department. However, it has been
observed that land use change is a complex procedure, which requires developers to
hire agents and liaison officers.
6.2 Revenue Land
There are standard procedures to be adopted for allotment of revenue land. The
government provides the revenue land on long-term lease basis to project developers
at nominal charges. The request for allotment needs to be made to the District Collector
with recommendation from the concerned SNA; same is explained in Figure 8.
Details with regard to procurement of private land for setting up wind project is
provided in Table 12.
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Figure 8: Steps in Revenue Land Leasing – Wind Project
Table 12: Steps in Revenue Land Leasing for Solar Project
Steps
Revenue Land Leasing – Solar Project
1
Site Identification by solar project developer based upon resource availability and other parameters
(terrain, approach, cost)
2
Registration of site for Allotment by SNA
3
Submission of application to DC for land allotment
4
Status Verification by DC (through to revenue authorities)
5
Verification by Patwari about land availability to DC (via Tehsildar & SDM)
6
Record examination by Patwari
7
Demarcation of land by Patwari in front of developer and villagers (process known as Pathadgarhi)
8
Request by DC for approval from state revenue department/ minister (through Patwari, Tehsildar,
ADC)
9
Recommendation by DC (forwarded to Patwari with intimation to SNA)
10
Application for change of land use by SPD
11
Payment of lease & conversion charges
12
Recommendation by Revenue Department for lease of land (executed in the form of a lease deed by DC)
Based upon existing land use, its location, size and applicable regulations of the state
government, it takes about 6 months for obtaining revenue land on lease; the time taken
at various levels of administration is highlighted in Figure 9.
Site
identificatio
n
Request to
SNA for
allotment
SNA
Recommen
dation to
DC
Verification
by DC
Request by
SNA to
Revenue
Departmen
t for
allotment
of land
Allotment
of land by
DC
Lease
execution
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Figure 9: Typical Timelines in Land Leasing
6.3 Land Procurement Models
a. Revenue Land on Lease: In this case, the revenue land is allotted by the state
government on lease based upon the recommendations of the concerned SNA.
Many of the wind projects in states of Rajasthan and Gujarat have been set up on
revenue land. Some of the upcoming Solar parks (like Bhadla Park in Rajasthan and
Bundelkhand Solar Park in Uttar Pradesh) are planned on revenue land. The
advantages include low lease rentals, utilization of waste-land and pre-approved
land allotment. In many cases, the revenue land is barren/ wasteland, thus,
obviating any need for human resettlement and avoiding use of fertile land.
However, there may be issues related to livelihood of non-title users, accessibility
and difficult terrain of the land. Further, wasteland and revenue land is
concentrated in few states, this model may not be possible across the country.
b. Purchase of Private Land: This model has been in vogue since a long time. Land
is purchased from land owners at a mutually agreed upon price to set-up wind and
solar projects. This provides a clear title, which is preferred by the financiers.
Project developers have the option to procure suitable land quickly. It leads to
creation of a long-term asset, associated with an ever-increasing value. However,
Patwari
•Verifies records regarding ownership of land
•1 week
Tehsildar
•Keeps official papers (jamabandi, khasra, lattha,
Gridavari) of the land
•1 week
DC
•Verification & Approvals
•6 weeks
Committee
•Approval by High power Committee
•3 months
Collector
•Land Allotment
•4 weeks
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there can be challenges with regard to high cost, multiple ownership and time
required for land use change. Further, most of the private land is fertile, and as such
may impact the long-term food security of the nation.
c. Private Land on Lease: This model is being currently used only in the solar
sector, with Pavagadda Solar Park (Karnataka) a good example. Punjab government
has also come out with a land leasing policy to encourage solar investors in the
agrarian state associated with a high cost of land. This has been fairly successful,
with a substantial portion of the total solar capacity coming under this route.
Private leasing for setting up wind projects has been witnessed in countries like
USA, Brazil and Denmark. The model assures a regular rental income to land
owners besides facilitating land at a lower cost (over outright purchase) to the
project developers. However, it may entail use of fertile land. For large size projects,
it may take time for land aggregation due to multiplicity of land owners.
d. Acquisition of Private Land: This type of model is being used in solar parks,
where the state government acquires land for further allotment to project
developers to develop large scale projects. Examples include Solar Parks in Gujarat
(Charanka) and Andhra Pradesh (Ananthapuramu). It has been observed that state
governments have avoided using the Land Acquisition Act (LARR) to acquire land
for setting up solar and wind energy projects. They procure land at market rates
agreeable to the land owners. For the Rewa Solar Park, the Madhya Pradesh
government used the ‘MP Consent Land Purchase Policy’
27
, to procure land. Under
this policy, the state government agencies acquire land after obtaining consent of
the land owners. The payment include amount for land as per the prevailing
‘Collector Guideline Rates’ plus an amount equal to value of immovable assets on
the procured land. If in cases where the landowners refuse to provide their consent,
their land would not be acquired, and the project is accordingly structured.
A comparison of the different types of land procurement models is provided in Table13.
27
http://www.mprevenue.nic.in/en/policy
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Table 13: Land Procurement Models
Model
Advantages
Challenges
Examples
Leasing of Revenue Land
Low rentals
Use of waste land
Approval process
Land use by non-title
holders
Wind Projects
Bhadla and Rewa Solar Parks
Purchase of Private Land
Clear title
Asset creation
Use of fertile land
Multiple owners
High prices of land
Wind Projects
Private Solar parks
Private Land on Lease
Annual rentals to land
owners
Lower cost to developers
Use of fertile land
Multiple owners
Solar Projects in Punjab and
Pavagadda Solar Park
Private Land acquired
Clarity on title
Proper procedure
Time for consent
Use of fertile land
Solar Parks in Rewa (Madhya
Pradesh) and
Ananthapuramu (Andhra
Pradesh)
6.4 Land Cost
Wind Projects
The initial cost of land is low, but as and when the project implementation picks up,
land owners get to know the value (worth) of their land as typically happens in any
other project. With saturation of good windy sites, it has become hard to locate
appropriate locations. However, with the advent of higher hub height turbines, which
can generate at low wind speeds, wind projects are getting implemented at many other
locations having modest wind resources.
The cost of procuring private land for setting up wind energy projects falls in the range
of INR 15-25 Lakh per acre, making the share of land cost in the range of 3-5 % of the
total project cost
28
. The Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission, TNERC, in its
wind tariff order for the year 2016, has considered cost of land as 5% of the total cost of
a wind project. Perusal of few land lease documents for a few wind energy projects
depicts lease rentals in range of INR 10,000-30,000 per MW per annum. Perusal of
28
As indicated by some wind project developers
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another document revealed that the land conversion charges were about INR 60,000
per hectare for a wind project being developed on wasteland in Gujarat
29
.
Solar Projects
The rate of procuring private land for a solar project depends upon its alternate use as
well as the terrain. In states of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, land rates lie in the
range of INR 5-10 lakhs per acre. In case of Odisha, the range is INR 7-12 lakhs per acre,
while higher prices were reported in the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh
and Telangana (INR 10-20 lakhs per acre). The northern states of Punjab, Haryana and
Uttrakhand command the maximum rates due to use of multi-crop areas (INR 25-50
lakhs per acre). The cost of land varies from 5-20% of the total cost in a solar project.
Due to high cost of land in some states, leasing of private land has been started so as to
contain the land procurement costs. In some cases, there is a direct leasing by private
land owners to project developers while in other cases (like Solar Parks), government
agencies like SECI acts as an intermediate player to take land on lease from land owners
for sub-leasing it to solar project developers. The yearly lease rentals on a per acre basis
vary from INR 50,000 in Punjab, INR 40,000 in Haryana, INR 15,000 in UP and INR
8,000 in Rajasthan. In many cases, lease rentals are negotiated according to prevailing
market sentiments. The perusal of a land lease document of a solar project located in
Rajasthan reflected rentals of INR 1000 per acre per annum, though these rates have
been revised upwardly recently.
29
As shared by sector consultants
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7.0 LAND INTENSITY
The land utilization of any energy technology can be accounted for by two terms –
land transformation and land occupation.
Land transformation is the overall land footprint of the technology across its lifetime,
which includes directly transformed land area for setting up the power plant, mining
fuel, fuel transportation, waste disposal and provision of space around the plant. In
addition, it also accounts for indirect land transformations the land area that goes
into upstream processes and secondary land disturbances, i.e. land degradation due
to pollutants and effluents from the fuel and material cycles.
Land occupation is a measure about how a certain energy source affects the land
qualitatively. It is calculated by multiplying the transformed land area with the time
taken to recover to its initial state and hence is a measure of how a certain energy
source affects the land qualitatively.
The parameter ‘sqm per MW’ (sqm is square meters) accounts for land area required
to set up a typical power plant; it is the ratio of the area occupied by a typical power
plant to its capacity of generation (nominal capacity). On the other hand, the
parameter ‘sqm per MWh’ accounts for life-cycle land transformations, which include
area that goes into setting up a power plant, fuel mining (in case of gas, coal and
nuclear fuels), transportation (coal and gas) and waste disposal (for nuclear projects)
across the lifetime of the power plant; it is the ratio of life-cycle land area transformed
by a typical power plant to its lifetime energy generation.
7.1 Coal Power Plants
Land requirement for a thermal power project depends upon many factors - unit size
and number of units, type of coal (indigenous or imported), location (pit-head or
coastal) etc. Besides there are site specific issues which determine the land
requirements which include: -
• Coal storage capacity planned depending on the location of plant and certainty of
coal receipts
• Mode of coal receipt rail or conveyor
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• Water storage capacity planned depending on source of water and its availability
• Type of condenser cooling system
Coal power plants not only transform land around the power plant, but they also
require land for mining coal and transportation of the extracted fuel from the mines
to the plant location. Mining for coal, and thermal power generation are both land-
intensive. A typical 5 X 800 MW plant, based upon indigenous coal requires about
2770 acres of land, whereas, a similar capacity thermal power plant dependent upon
imported coal requires 1530 acres
30
. However, this does not include the area required
for coal mining, some of which can be made productive again after the mining activity
is completed.
As estimated by the Niti Aayog under the various India Energy Security Scenarios
(IESS), India would cumulatively produce between 25,750 and 44,350 million tonnes
of coal between 2013 and 2047, requiring 309 to 1460 square km of land. Given that
India’s total land area is about 3.3 million square km, the total land requirement for
coal production and coal-based power generation shall amount to 0.056% - 1.7% of
India’s total land area.
7.2 Solar Photovoltaic Plants
A typical solar PV project requires land in the range of 3.5 – 7.5 acres per MW. This
depends upon module technologies (crystalline and thin film), terrain (flat/ undulated/
plateau), latitude (nearness to equator), use of tracking systems (require more land but
leads to higher generation) and the design of the field (ideally rectangular). The land
requirement depending upon the technologies / efficiencies of cell fall in the range of
3 to 9 acres per MW
31
, as indicated in Table 14.
Table 14: Land Intensity of Solar Technologies
Cell Type
Efficiency of Cell
Land per MW (Acres)
Mono Crystalline Silicon
18-24%
3-4
Poly Crystalline Silicon
14-18%
4-5
Thin Film
6-14%
7.5-9
30
Review of land requirement for Thermal Power Stations, CEA, September 2010
31
IREDA note on land use by solar technologies
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An analysis by the Centre for Science and Environment shows a large variation in
land intensity of projects using different types of solar technologies between the
actual land requirements and the figures considered by CERC in its tariff calculations;
it varies from 1.4 to 5.34 hectares per MW, refer Table 15
32
.
Table 15: Comparison of Land Intensity of Solar Projects
Cell Type
Land Requirements
taken by CERC
Actual Land
Requirements
Acres per MW
Acres per MW
Mono Crystalline Silicon
5.4
3.4-4.9
Poly Crystalline Silicon
5.4
5.9
Amorphous-Silicon
7.9
13.1
Under the schemes launched by MNRE/ SECI, investors are required to provide details
of the land as a pre-requisite at the time of application. The minimum requirement as
per these schemes is 1.5 hectares per MW, which has not been revised since last five
years
33
. However, the power capacity of a module (Wp/ sqm, using the same area) has
increased tremendously over this period, from 280 Wp to 335 Wp
34
, depicting an
increase of over 25%. Further, there has also been no change in land intensity of solar
technology based projects as considered by CERC in its tariff determination orders
35
.
A comparison chart is provided in Table 16.
Table 16: Comparison of Module Capacity and Land Requirements
Year
Poly-crystalline Module
Capacity
Area of 2 sqm
36
SECI Land
Hectare/MW
(Min)
CERC
Acre/ MW
2017
340 Wp
1.5
5
2016
310 Wp
1.5
5
2015
290 Wp
1.5
5
2014
270 Wp
1.5
5
32
Facing the Sun, Centre for Science and Environment, 2012
33
SECI Schemes under NSM
34
Portals of leading solar module manufacturers
35
Review of
35
CERC Tariff Orders on Solar Energy Technologies
36
Referred from a leading module manufacturer
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Another important aspect is latitude, which determines the spacing required between
two rows of modules; higher the latitude, more is the spacing requirement.
Figure 10: Latitude Map of India
37
The latitude of India varies vastly from 10 degrees N in northern states to 35 degrees N
at the southern tip of the Peninsular India, which may require different quantum of
land based on the project location; refer Figure 10. However, the investors are required
to prove possession of land of a certain minimum size irrespective of the location. These
factors highlight the need for rationalizing the use of land based on technology and
location.
Solar Potential on Wasteland
As per a study conducted by the National Institute of Solar Energy (NISE), the total
37
Maps of India Portal
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solar potential in the country has been estimated as 750 GW
38
. The calculation has been
made taking data from Census 2011 considering the Indian Waste Land Atlas 2010,
developed by the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India. The state wise
solar potential is provided in Table 17.
Table 17: State Wise Solar Power Potential
Sl
No
States
Potential (GW)
1
Rajasthan
142
2
Jammu & Kashmir
110
3
Madhya Pradesh
60
4
Maharashtra
60
5
Gujarat
36
6
Other States
340
TOTAL
748
7.3 Wind Energy Projects
Wind projects are land intensive and the requirement depends upon the wind speed in
the region, turbine technology and land topography (terrain). The actual use of land is
much smaller because each wind turbine is kept at a certain distance from the adjacent
turbine. This spacing allows each turbine to capture the wind in the most optimum
manner. Some land is required for service roads and for the foundations upon which
the wind turbines stand. On a flat terrain, wind turbines are placed in rectangular
arrays. Wind-farm designers specify the distance between wind turbines in rotor
diameters. Initially, the investors purchased large contiguous land and installed wind
energy generators, WEGs, with a separating distance of 5D x 7D, or, 3D X 5D, where D
is the diameter of the turbine; schematic portrayed as Figure 11. This was associated
with a land intensity of 7-17 MW per Ha.
38
State wise Estimated Solar Power Potential in the Country
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Figure 11: Wind Farm Outlay
39
Due to scarcity of land in good wind regime areas and increasing cost of land, project
developers have started procuring land on a turbine footprint basis, which includes
approach road, transmission lines, sub-station and space for maintenance by crane.
Currently, the commonly used 2-MW turbine model requires 100 X 100 square meters
of land (equivalent to 1 hectare, or 2.47 acres). After taking into account area required
for approach road and evacuation infrastructure, the effective land requirement is in the
range of 1.25 - 1.5 hectares per MW.
Most wind power projects are implemented in large wind power estates developed by
Manufacturer-Cum-Developers, who offer turnkey solutions. The turbine
manufacturers create land banks by acquiring land in locations having good wind
velocity though some of the large Independent Power Producers (IPPs) have also started
developing land banks by themselves. WEG manufacturers develop the complete
infrastructure and obtain all the necessary clearance/permissions for developing the
wind farm. On completion of the basic infrastructure, the manufacturer offers one or
more turbines to prospective investors. After receipt of a firm order from investor, the
foundation is constructed; turbines are dispatched to site, erected and commissioned
within 3 to 6 months, based upon the capacity of the wind farm.
39
For Illustration Purposes
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As can be seen from Table 18, because of changes in turbine technology, the land area
pee MW has been decreasing over the years, witnessing over 40% reduction during the
last 5 years
40
.
Table 18: Land Intensity of Wind Projects
Year
Capacity (MW)
Area per Turbine
(Acres)
Land Intensity
(Acres/ MW)
2016
3.0
3.0
1
2015
2.1
2.5
1.2
2014
2.0
2.5
1.25
2013
1.5
2.5
1.7
Wind Potential on Wasteland
The National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE) has estimated the wind power potential
of India at 100m height as 302 GW, considering 6 MW per square km. Within this
potential, 153 GW can be developed using only wasteland areas, refer Table 19. The
study has been performed with actual land availability and excludes roads, railways,
protected areas, airports, areas with elevation more than 1500m and slope more than
20 degree.
Table 19: State Wise Wind Energy Potential
Sl No
States
Potential (GW)
1
Rajasthan
15
2
Tamil Nadu
11
3
Maharashtra
31
4
Gujarat
52
5
Andhra Pradesh
22
6
Karnataka
15
7
Others
7
TOTAL
153
40
As indicated by wind project developers
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8.0 SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACTS
Large scale capacity addition targets envisaged for the solar and wind energy sectors
would invariably require large tracts of land, which is a scarce natural resource with
competing demands. In a land constraint country like India, with a high density of
population, procuring large quantity of land may pose significant challenges,
including conflict with the communities residing close to projects. There is also a
related impact on use of agriculture land (both mono-crop and multi-crop), for
setting up solar and wind energy projects, which may create socio-economic issues
both at the macro level (food security) as well as at the micro level (livelihood)
41
.
8.1 Benefits and Challenges
The key social and economic benefits associated with setting up of renewable energy
projects include job creation, development of local infrastructure, provision of energy
access, street lighting systems, skill development of youth, water and sanitation
facilities besides payment of financial compensation/ lease rentals to the land owners.
Employment generation is in terms of both direct and indirect jobs like labour work,
security staff, panel cleaning, transportation vehicles and drivers, project
maintenance and lodging and boarding facilities
42
.
The setting up of a solar / wind project invariably leads to development of road
infrastructure in the vicinity of the project location, leading to heighted movement of
traffic and prosperity of the local community. As the project is of long term nature
(20/ 25 years), project developers develop amicable relations with the local
community providing them sops in form of facilitate drinking water units and health
camps for the local community. An indirect benefit is the use of hotels by the people
working on the projects, which supplements the income of local people.
As with any infrastructure project, solar and wind projects too have some impacts
upon the local community and their economy; these include-
41
Resettlement Policy Framework - Solar PV Park, MNRE, December 2015
42
Developmental Impacts and Sustainable Governance Aspects of Renewable Energy Projects, MNRE,
September 2013
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• Opportunity cost to villagers due to land diversion and inadequacy of
compensation offered; it is high if the diverted land has good productivity
• Livelihood impact on land owners as well as non-title holders like tenants,
landless labourers and contract cultivators
• Accessibility and in some cases, reduction in availability of common property
resources at the site for the local population like water
• Relocation of built up structures
• Ecological impacts like soil erosion, tree cover loss and natural habitat loss.
8.2 Regulations
Wind and Solar Photovoltaic Power Projects are not covered under the ambit of EIA
Notification, 2006 (as per MoEFCC) and no environment clearance is required for
such projects under the provisions thereof. Further, they have been categorized under
‘White Category’ of industries, and exempted from obtaining the ‘Consent to Operate’
from the concerned state pollution control board (SPCB).
It has been noted that due to the conditions put in by some of the international
funding agencies supporting the Indian RE sector, the beneficiary agencies/ investors
have undertaken ESIA assessment of the projects being funded/ developed by them.
The Performance Standard 5 of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) talks
about ‘Land Acquisition and Involuntary Resettlement’ with the following objectives:
• Avoid or minimize involuntary resettlement whenever feasible by exploring
alternative project designs.
• Mitigate adverse social and economic impacts by providing compensation for
loss of assets at replacement cost and ensuring that resettlement activities are
implemented with appropriate disclosure of information, consultation and
informed participation of those affected.
• Improve or at least restore livelihoods and living standards of displaced
persons.
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• Improve living conditions among displaced persons through provision of
adequate housing with security of tenure at resettlement sites.
8.3 Analysis of ESIA Reports
Perusal of Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) reports of solar parks
available on public domain indicated the key reason for sale of land as non-
remunerative returns from agriculture. These reports highlighted the scepticism of
non-title holders about the loss of their livelihoods. The expectations of the local
community included employment creation and provision of power supply. They felt
about the potential increase in land prices and improvement in their welfare
conditions
43
. A study by TERI on the Charanka Solar Park located in Gujarat
highlighted limited agricultural activity as the reason for sale of land.
With regard to the Madhya Pradesh Rewa Solar Park, the ESIA report highlighted the
fact that only barren and less agricultural land was identified for acquisition
purposes. The owners intended to use the compensation towards purchase of land/
property, construction/ repair of house, conducting marriage, investing in business
and for paying-off their debts. The locals expected the project to generate
employment (in project related activities) based on skill development, provision of
infrastructure, roads health facilities and subsidised electricity, advisory on
improvement in agricultural practices. They also felt indirect benefit in terms of
increase in land prices. The local officials suggested introduction of smokeless
chulhas for schools for preparation of mid-day meals and installing biogas plants as
the local population own livestock. Compensation has been worked out based on the
prevailing market value (known as the Collector Guideline Rate) plus one-time
solatium. However, the land owners were not aware of what the existing market rates
are, or if the Collectorate rates are higher or lower in comparison to market rates.
Some of the studies have propounded sharing of benefits with the local community in
form of a certain percentage of the total revenue, say 1-3 paisa per unit of electricity
generated from the project. The solar park guidelines also call for setting-up of local
area development fund (LADF) with contribution from the project investors,
43
ESIA Reports of Pavagadda and REWA Solar Parks being developed by SECI
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equivalent to 1% of the total investment. It also asks for facilitating training facilities
for development of entrepreneurship bodies technical and professional skill
enhancement for employment of local people in the projects.
A review of ESIA report of a 194 MW wind farm project located in Andhra Pradesh
showed that land being used was a single-crop rainfed land. The landowners sold
their land willingly using the compensation for purchasing agricultural land in nearby
areas besides repaying their debts and supporting education of their kids.
8.4 Employment Generation Prospects
With regard to employment creation, the job requirement in a typical solar and wind
project tapers steeply when the project moves from the implementation to the
commissioning phase. A report by CEEW indicated that a 20 MW solar project
located in Rajasthan created 17.5 full time equivalent (FTE) jobs for skilled personnel
and 118 FTE jobs for unskilled labour during the first year of project operation. This
figure tapered to 37 FTE jobs (both skilled and unskilled, on an annual basis) post-
commissioning of the project
44
.
Similarly, assessment of a 85 MW wind project in Maharashtra showed that it created
438 FTE jobs during the first year of operation, with 102.5 FTE jobs created per year
post-commissioning for the entire lifespan of project
45
. The nature of jobs included
15% for skilled personnel, 61% for semiskilled and 23% for unskilled people.
An ESIA report of a 50MW solar project described creation of 8-10 technical jobs and
25-40 unskilled/semi-skilled jobs like cleaning, housekeeping, cooks, drivers and
security personnel
46
.
44
Solar Power Jobs: Exploring the Employment Potential in India’s Grid-Connected Solar Market,
CEEW, August 2014
45
Creating Green Jobs: Employment Generation from Wind Energy in India, CEEW, August 2014
46
Social Due Diligence Report of a 50 MW Solar Project, accessed on Portal of IIFCL
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8.5 Corporate Social Responsibility
The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes of few leading IPPs were
reviewed
47
. It was observed that many of them are undertaking CSR activities in the
areas/ villages adjoining their projects. The activities included construction of
sanitation facilities, training on use of solar powered systems, health camps, potable
water supply systems, awareness on drip irrigation, water recharging and harvesting
structures and plantation drives. Besides, some companies have been undertaking
skill development programs for local youth and augmenting the school infrastructure
like drinking water and computer systems.
47
As available on the portals of few leading IPPs
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9.0 Challenges
9.1 Lack of Land Utilization Policy
As land is constitutionally placed in the state list, its conservation and management is
the responsibility of the respective state governments. However, most states are yet to
come out with a comprehensive state level ‘Land Utilization Policy’ to balance the
land requirements of different sectors in a prudential manner. Similarly, the
Department of Land Resources, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India
is yet to finalize the ‘National Land Utilisation Policy’.
9.2 Poorly Maintained Land Records
There is a lack of authenticity and documentation in land revenue records in many
states due to irregular land use surveys leading to incongruities of land records with
the ground realities. The maximum time in the overall land procurement process is
required at the level of Patwari, whose job includes examining/ reconciling records to
ascertain the availability and applicability of the land and physically demarcating the
land in presence of project developer and land owners; this process is called
Pathadgarhi. It takes several weeks, and sometimes months, to finalize the exact land
coordinates and identify the rightful owners to undertake commercial negotiations.
Even though many states have initiated digitization of their land records, the same
needs to be expedited.
9.3 Preference for Land Procurement
Most of the project developers favoured purchase of private land over taking revenue
land on lease due to efforts in securing the approvals from several agencies. This land,
owned by the developer, creates a long-term appreciable asset, which may be re-
deployed after the lifetime of the project. The purchase of land from private entities
does not require multiple approvals as is the case of revenue land. Further, there is a
clarity in terms of ownership title of the land enabling mortgage creation, as is
preferred by the banks and financial institutions.
9.4 Land Ceiling Limits
There are restrictions under the Land Ceiling Acts as legislated by the state
governments, with certain upper limits. Due to increasing ticket size of projects,
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spanning over several hundred acres, it poses a challenge for the investors to procure
land under names of different companies. Though some states have provided
relaxation in ‘Land Ceiling Act’ to accommodate projects of larger capacity, the same
needs to be undertaken by other states to streamline the process. Moreover, as the
land is owned by several individuals, help of local land aggregators who have the
ability to convince the land owners to sell their land, is also required.
9.5 Concentration of Revenue Wasteland
There has been a concentration of revenue wasteland in a few states like Rajasthan,
Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, thereby, leading to unequitable distribution of projects
in these regions. A related issue is the time taken for creation of mortgage in case of
lease land, which needs to be reduced/ streamlined. In many states, permission is
required from the local panchayat for setting up projects, which further increases the
effort on the part of developers.
9.6 Technological and Local Parameters
Locations within India have varying levels of insolation as well as latitude angles. One
factor determining the size of the solar field is the latitude of the site, which leads to
varying degree of module inclination and spacing within them. The latitude increases
as we move away from the equator towards north. Chennai has latitude of 13 degree
as compared to 29 degrees in case of Delhi. As such, more land is required in the
northern part of the country on per MW basis, other parameters remaining constant.
Besides the location, land requirement also depends upon the terrain of the land
(topography) and the shape of the solar field. A square shape plot is ideal for planning
and setting up a solar project and requires the minimum land requirement.
Availability of contiguous land would help in better designing of project over distantly
located land parcels for a large size project. Similarly, a flat surface would require
lesser space than an undulated land.
In many of the schemes, projects are allotted on AC capacity (Inverter rating in MVA)
without any cap on DC capacity (nameplate capacity of modules in kWp). As such,
project developers put up higher capacity of solar modules as the inverter can absorb
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all the power generated after accounting for cable losses. This also leads to increased
land requirement by the project. Bridge to India, in its analysis of utility scale solar
tenders in India, has indicated the DC:AC ratio of 1.15
48
.
Another important aspect in determining the land area for the project is the efficiency
of solar modules. There has been a rapid enhancement in efficiency of solar modules
and the current efficiency levels of the commonly used poly-crystalline modules has
surpassed the 16% mark from the 14% efficiency levels available a few years back.
49
.
9.7 Use of Fertile Land
Prime agricultural land is fast disappearing, mostly for use by industrial projects. It
has been reported that India’s cultivable land area shrank by about 400,000 hectares
to 182 million hectares in the three years to March 2011, with the states of Punjab,
Haryana and Uttar Pradesh (known as nation’s granaries), reporting the biggest
declines.
Developers prefer fertile areas near urban centers over distant arid locations for
market as well as availability of transmission grids. The farther projects are located
from urban areas, the higher the costs to build transmission lines to the grid and the
more power is lost in transmission. Most of the states have done away with
restrictions on use of agriculture land for setting up wind and solar projects. Land
cost being a small proportion of the total project cost, between 2-5%, the investors are
inclined to procure the land. Further, purchase of land from private entities does not
require multiple approvals as is the case of revenue land.
The willingness of farmers to sell their farms encourages the project developers to
acquire fertile arable land. Agriculture as a sector is supporting over 60% of the
Indian population, but its share in the country’s GDP is only 15%. Farming as a
livelihood is facing numerous challenges on account of droughts, floods as well as
48
Analysis of utility scale solar tenders in India, Bridge to India, March 2017
49
Photovoltaics Report, Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, ISE, July 2017
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market imperfections. This makes it easier for the developers to purchase fertile land
from the farmers, thereby, impacting the food security of the nation in the long run.
9.8 Limited Employment Potential
Though wind and solar energy projects create employment for the local community, it
is mostly of unskilled nature like security personnel, transport drivers and module
cleaners. Moreover, the jobs tapers down steeply, from the project commissioning
phase to the O&M phase. This has been discussed in detail in Chapter-8 covering
Socio-economic Impacts.
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10.0 BEST PRACTICES
National
10.1 Land Procurement and Allotment
The land procurement procedure can be streamlined by providing relevant
information with regard to land availability for setting up solar and wind projects as
well as minimizing the number of approvals required.
RREC (Rajasthan Renewable Energy Corporation), has provided a district-wise list of
villages where revenue land is available for setting up solar PV projects. This data has
been obtained from the district collectors. RREC facilitates allotment of revenue land
by recommending it to the concerned District Collector. The developers are further
permitted to sub-lease the land. The state government of Rajasthan permits solar and
wind energy project developers to purchase agriculture land directly from the owner
(Khatedar) in excess of ceiling limits in accordance with the provision of Rajasthan
Imposition of Ceiling on Agriculture Holding Act 1973.
In case of land owned by the revenue department or any other state government
department, the New & Renewable Energy Department of Madhya Pradesh takes
possession of land and gives permission for its use to the developer. The Madhya
Pradesh Trade & Investment Facilitation Corporation Limited has also initiated an
online land booking facility for certain category of industries including for the solar
sector
50
. The portal provides details of land parcels available across different districts
of the state.
With regard to acquiring land from private land owners, the state government has
come out with the Madhya Pradesh’s Consent of Land Purchase Policy. Under this
Policy, the state government agencies acquire land after obtaining consent of all the
land owners, paying them as per the prevailing ‘Collector Guideline Rates’. The Policy
also has the provision to re-design the project in case of refusal of landowners to
provide their consent.
50
http://www.invest.mp.gov.in/
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Under the Karnataka Solar Policy, the concerned SNA (Karnataka Renewable Energy
Development Limited, KREDL) is required to identify land banks in each district with
help of Collectors, which may be used for setting up solar projects. The Policy also
provides for creation of private land banks for development of solar projects on a
long-term lease basis.
With regard to delegating of responsibility, Gujarat has empowered the district
collectors to allocate land for solar and wind projects. Similarly, Karnataka has vested
district collectors (DC) with powers to approve purchase of agricultural land for
development of solar projects. The state government has issued necessary
amendments enhancing the land ceiling limits for solar projects to 108 acres against
the earlier limit of 55 acres.
Under the ‘Land Allotment Policy’, the government of Andhra Pradesh has made
provision to allot revenue land for solar and wind energy projects. The possession of
revenue land including pathways is provided by the District Collector in advance to
the wind project developers to facilitate faster execution of projects.
10.2 Land Use Change and Environmental Approvals
Under the Karnataka Land Reforms (Amendment) Act, 2015, the occupant of any
agriculture land can divert such land for the purpose of setting up of solar power
generation and the permission applied for conversion of such land shall be deemed to
have been granted. Further, the project developers are allowed to start project
execution without waiting for a formal approval on filing application for conversion of
agricultural land.
The government of Andhra Pradesh provides deemed ‘Non-Agricultural’ (NA) status
for solar and wind energy projects, obviating the need for a specific approval. In case
of Punjab, agricultural land is allowed for setting up of Renewable Energy Power
Projects in the state. The state government has also exempted payment of fee and
stamp duty for registration and lease deed charges for the land required for the
project. Under the Madhya Pradesh Solar Power Policy, an exemption of 50% on
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stamp duty is available to project developers towards purchase of private land for
their project
In Rajasthan, private land owner is permitted to set up solar power project on his
holding or to sub-let his holding for setting up of such projects without the
requirement of land conversion in accordance within the provisions of Rajasthan
Tenancy Act 1955 and Rajasthan Land Revenue Act 1956. The Tehsildar as well as the
SNA needs to be informed, with no requirement for land use conversion.
The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has placed
solar photovoltaic and wind power projects under ‘White Category’ of industries,
under they are not required to obtain ‘Consent to Operate’ (CTO) from the respective
state pollution control board (SPCB / PCC) and an intimation to them would suffice.
Necessary directions in this regard have been issued by CPCB to the SPCBs and PCCs
for compliance.
Indian regulations do not stipulate conducting of ‘Environmental and Social Impact
Assessment’ (ESIA) for solar photovoltaic and wind energy projects (irrespective of
their capacity). However, international funding agencies (like World Bank, IFC, KfW,
JICA) require ESIA reports before committing their funding support. These
assessment reports
51
, aid in screening, assessment and management of
environmental and social impacts at an early stage in project planning.
10.3 Single Office Facility
The government of Andhra Pradesh has started a single window clearance facility for
solar and wind power projects. Under this mechanism, investors get all the approvals
by uploading necessary documents using the portal. Relevant application formats are
also available, and the work process is explained with the help of flowcharts.
Similarly, the government of Punjab has set up ‘Punjab Bureau of Investment
51
ESIA reports of a few solar and wind projects, as available on public domain, were reviewed
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Promotion’ which is vested with regulatory powers to provide approvals for setting up
industries including solar in the state of Punjab
52
.
The government of Madhya Pradesh provides for a time bound clearance from the
concerned agencies - revenue department for land procurement, SNA for project
allotment and transmission utility for power evacuation; the requests for these
approvals are filled simultaneously, thereby saving considerable time.
10.4 Setting Land and Project Capacity Limits
In Andhra Pradesh, land is allocated on footprint basis for setting up wind project at a
rate of one hectare per MW. In Madhya Pradesh, the government land is provided for
establishing aero-generator on footprint basis which includes approach road,
transmission lines, substation and other affiliated uses.
For solar project, the respective land limits in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh are 2.5
hectares and 3 hectares per MW respectively. The government of Karnataka has
restricted the solar capacity per taluk to 200 MW (excluding rooftop projects) to
ensure that the projects are spread evenly across the state.
10.5 Using Brown-Field and Under-Developed Sites
It has been estimated that over 2000 MW of vintage wind projects using lower
capacity turbines were setup before the year 2000 in areas experiencing high wind
velocity. These wind farms can be suitably repowered to put up larger turbines upto 3
times capacity using the same land area. MNRE has also come out with a wind
repowering policy to promote such projects. This shall enable use of existing land
allocated to wind projects for putting up additional wind capacity and obviate use of
procuring new land.
Under the Gujarat and the Madhya Pradesh wind energy policies, the SNA can forfeit
bank guarantee in case of delay in project commissioning. Karnataka has recently
52
http://investpunjab.gov.in/
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cancelled land allocated to wind energy companies who have failed to set up projects
within the stipulated time. The cancellation impacted over 5000 MW wind capacity
53
.
In Andhra Pradesh, revenue land is allotted jointly in the name of developer and the
SNA, NREDCAP. The land is leased in the name of developer upon commissioning of
project. However, in case of delay in execution, the government takes back the land
for re-allotment to other companies.
10.6 International Best Practices
United States
The Bureau of Land Management offers renewable energy developers right-of-way
authorizations laying out rental payments and fees tied to electric generating
capacity
54
. Under the standard right-of-way grant, the Bureau explicitly reserves the
right to change per-acre rents annually and the capacity-factor fee at any time to
ensure a fair return to the U.S. taxpayers who own the land.
The projects developers are encouraged to bid on government-selected tracts with
gusty winds and intense sunlight pre-cleared of major environmental conflicts. Under
the proposed rule, companies are encouraged to vie for territory in U.S.-designated
renewable energy zones, with the end result being formal leases that could lock in
some terms for at least 10 years and provide more developer protections. The Bureau
has established 18 other designated leasing zones for solar power.
European Nations
In most of the European countries, the landowner leases their land to project
developers for installing the wind turbines and gets in return a rent in range of
$1,250-5,000 per turbine besides royalty equivalent to 2-6% of gross revenues.
In countries like Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands, many wind and solar
projects are owned jointly by the landowners themselves along with the developers;
landowner may not own the wind turbines in their entirety but may own an equity
53
KREDL Website
54
Solar Energy Zones, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), The United States
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11.0 PROJECTIONS OF LAND REQUIREMENTS
11.1 Base Case
In the base case, land requirements for setting up solar PV projects and wind projects
have been considered to be 5 acres per MW and 3 acres per MW respectively, similar
to the existing usage trends. With 50 GW of solar and 30 GW of wind expected to be
commissioned up by the year 2022, the total land requirements would come to be
3,40,000 acres. Refer Table 20.
Table 20: Land Requirements-Base Case
Sector
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Year 5
Total
(‘000 Acres)
(A) Solar PV
8
9
10
11
12
50
Acre/MW
5
5
5
5
5
Total (A)
40
45
50
55
60
250
(B) Wind
4
5
6
7
8
30
Acre/MW
3
3
3
3
3
Total (B)
12
15
18
21
24
90
TOTAL
340
11.2 Scenario - I
In this case, the watt peak capacity per solar photovoltaic module has been assumed
to increase by 5% annually based on what has been experienced during the last 5
years, leading to reduction in area used per MW by 5% per year.
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With regard to wind, due to increase in the hub-height and deployment of better
technology turbines, the land requirement per MW is assumed to decrease by 5%
annually.
Based on these projections, the total requirement of land gets reduced to about
3,00,000 acres. Refer Table 21.
Table 21: Land Requirements-Scenario I
Sector
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Year 5
Total
(‘000 Acres)
(A) Solar PV
8
9
10
11
12
50
Acre/MW
5
4.75
4.51
4.28
4.07
Total (A)
40
42.75
45.12
47.15
48.87
224
(B) Wind
4
5
6
7
8
30
Acre/MW
3
2.85
2.71
2.57
2.44
Total (B)
12
14.25
16.24
18.00
19.55
80
TOTAL
304
11.3 Scenario - II
In this Scenario, over and above the assumption of Scenario-I, repowering and re-
allocation of sites has been considered. Repowering of vintage wind sites leading to
capacity addition of 1 GW per annum over the next five years has been taken into
account.
MNRE as well as some of the state nodal agencies have been penalising developers
who have been slow in project execution by way of cancelling their land allotment.
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This Scenario considers re-allotment of sites to new project developers so as to
expedite project implementation activity. It is expected to contribute a total of 5 GW
in project capacity addition taking 1 GW addition per annum over the next five years,
without requiring any new parcels of land for setting up wind projects. Based on these
projections, the total requirement of land gets pruned to 2,77,000 acres.
Refer Table 22.
Table 22: Land Requirements-Scenario II
Sector
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Year 5
Total
(‘000 Acres)
(A) Solar PV
8
9
10
11
12
50
Acre/MW
5
4.75
4.51
4.28
4.07
Total (A)
40
42.75
45.12
47.15
48.87
224
(B) Wind
4
5
6
7
8
30
Effective
2
3
4
5
6
Acre/MW
3
2.85
2.71
2.57
2.44
Total (B)
6
8.55
10.84
12.85
14.64
53
TOTAL
277
11.4 Scenario - III
In this case, over and above the assumption of Scenarios I and II, promotion of
hybrid systems and land neutral technologies has been considered. Co-locating solar
projects within the existing wind farms identified for repowering, can save substantial
land. Using a thumb rule of 20% solar capacity co-located within the wind farms, it is
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expected to yield a total of 2 GW capacity during the period 2017-19 without any
additional requirements of land.
Land neutral solar based projects set up on canal tops and floating on existing lakes
and water reservoirs have been set up on pilot scale across several states and are
improving their techno-commercial viability. Considering a 2 GW addition by these
technologies during the period 2019-21 would obviate land required for setting up a
similar size ground-mounted solar capacity. Based on these projections, the total
requirement of land gets reduced to 2,58,000 acres. Refer Table 23.
Table 23: Land Requirements-Scenario III
Sector
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Year 5
Total
(‘000 Acres)
(A) Solar PV
8
9
10
11
12
50
Effective
8-1
9-1
10-1
11-1
12
Acre/MW
5.00
4.75
4.51
4.28
4.07
Total (A)
35
38
40.59
42.8
48.84
205
(B) Wind
2
3
4
5
6
30
Acre/MW
3
2.85
2.71
2.57
2.44
Total (B)
6
8.55
10.84
12.85
14.64
53
TOTAL
258
It can be observed that the land requirement reduces by 25% in the Scenario-III over
the Base Case.
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12.0 RECOMMENDATIONS
The following interventions are suggested which may be taken into consideration to
ensure expeditious procurement of land in a prudential manner with minimal
impacts upon the local community. These are based upon assessment of relevant
policies, project reports, field practices as well as the inputs shared by the sectoral
stakeholders.
12.1 Policy
12.1.1 Developing Land Utilization Policy
As land is constitutionally placed in the state list, its conservation and management is
to be taken care of by the respective state government. There are multiple claimants
for land to utilize it for various purposes - Railways, Highways, Industrial Parks,
Agro-processing Zones, IT Parks and SEZs, etc. As such, it becomes difficult to allot
land without analysing the merits of each case.
This calls for a holistic policy on land utilization to be developed by each state
government to balance the land requirements of different sectors in the most
prudential and ecologically friendly manner. The land policy can map the existing use
versus the intended use, based on parameters like employment generation potential,
environmental sustainability, population density and change in land use. Each
government department can present its land requirements, which needs to be
assessed based on the overall benefits to the nation, the society and the local
community. The State Land Board can play an important role in this exercise using
information technology tools.
The State Nodal Agency, SNA, can share the Wind and Solar Atlas of the state with
the Land Use Board to identify and earmark areas which can be used to set up solar
and wind energy projects. These areas can then be offered under auctions to source
green energy at lowest possible tariffs. There can be single window system for projects
to get all approvals for setting up projects in the identified regions, similar to the
system as followed in case of Solar Parks.
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12.1.2 Digitization of Land Records
In most of the discussions, it came out that the maximum time required within the
overall land procurement process is required at the level of Patwari, whose job
includes examining and reconciling records to ascertain the availability of the land
and physically demarcating the land in presence of the developer and land owners. It
takes several weeks, and sometimes months, to finalize the exact land coordinates
and identifying rightful owners to undertake commercial negotiations. In many cases,
there are multiple owners of the same parcel of land. There is a lack of digitization of
land records and inconsistency in updating them.
To expedite this procedure, digitization of land records is required in order to
modernise the land record system. Under this programme, plot-wise details of
ownership can be maintained in the computer database, to be periodically updated so
that the owners as well as potential buyers can verify the ownership records. It is
desirable for rationalisation, simplification and standardization of land records. The
State Land Board can digitize the land records and undertake GIS mapping of the
entire land within their respective state.
12.1.3 Prioritizing use of Wasteland
India has over 63 million hectares, or 20% of its total land, classified as wasteland.
The state governments, can identify waste / barren land and superimpose it on the
Solar and Wind Atlas to earmark areas for setting up of solar and wind projects.
Subsequently, these areas can be allotted to project developers under open auctions
to generate clean power at the lowest possible rates.
The states of Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh have large
tracts of government owned wasteland which receive good solar insolation.
Incidentally, these states have lower density of population, high levels of solar
insolation, above 5.5 kWh/sq.m/ day, and sufficient availability of wasteland, which
can be utilized for setting up projects. States lacking wasteland may be permitted to
set up projects in these states having to meet their RPO. The Central Electricity
Regulatory Commission (CERC) has exempted payment of inter-state transmission
charges and losses by solar and wind projects using the inter-state transmission
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system. An example is the agreement between the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation
(DMRC) and Rewa Solar Park in Madhya Pradesh for purchase of solar power using
the inter-state transmission system (ISTS).
To curb the use of fertile land for setting up projects, deemed land-use change
approvals can be limited to wasteland and mono-crop land.
12.1.4 Model Land Lease Policy
From an economic and social perspective, getting annual land rentals is preferable
over an upfront payment of compensation as it provides a regular source of income to
the land owners, besides bestowing the option upon the owner to get back the land
after the expiry of lease period. Leasing has recently gained traction in areas
associated with high cost of land (like Punjab). It improves the project profitably as
the expenditure incurred towards procurement of land decreases. To increase the
acceptance of lease models, government can develop a ‘Model Land Lease Policy’
taking into consideration the concerns of the stakeholders - land owners, investors
and financiers.
12.1.5 Time limits for Project Development
Project developers create land banks across different states and regions, which are
then offered to solar and wind project developers for investment purposes. Many
times, the developers are unable to commission the project within stipulated period.
In this regard, the respective SNAs need to ensure that the project development takes
place within the earmarked time and no new sites are allocated to these companies
before the development of all previously allotted sites.
Appropriate penalty clauses along with the requirement to submit bank guarantees
may be incorporated in the solar and wind policies. If the developers are unable to
develop the sites, the sites can be offered to other companies or taken back by the
government for other developmental works.
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12.1.6 Using Brownfield Sites
In India, coal production is expected to double by the year 2020-25 and 85% coal
production is using opencast mines which require ground breaking, causing immense
land degradation. In order to balance the environmental effects of open mining, the
mined-out land of the exhausted coal mines should be restored to its pre-mined
condition.
As the mined land gets degraded this land can be suitably utilized for solar and wind
power projects based on techno-commercial feasibility. This will lead to generation of
clean power besides creating local employment. Incidentally, many of the mining
lessees are large industries like cement, iron & steel companies and power generating
utilities, who have the knowhow and capability of power generation. The above would
require changes in the ‘Mining Reclamation Policy’ to permit use of land for putting
up solar and wind energy projects.
12.2 Technology
12.2.1 Land Zonation Exercise
There should be a nationwide zonation study to assess the potential of different
renewable energy resources. This can identify probable sites for project development
considering parameters like RE potential of the region, latitude, ecological sensitivity,
availability of transmission infrastructure, roads, type of land and alternate land use
potential. Based on such an exercise, the suitable sites can be identified and made
available for project development. The project can be allocated in terms of maximum
energy generation per area, say kWh per sqm. This shall ensure use of best class
technologies by project developers, innovative project designs and good maintenance
practices.
12.2.2 Use of GIS Technology
There should be clearly defined policy and mandatory usage of Geographical
Information System (GIS) for land use, land cover analysis and identification of
wasteland for projects while mapping the renewable energy potential over different
regions. The Government could take into consideration renewable energy resource
availability as well as land and water availability. Government can set-up an
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independent and representative regulatory authority at the state level to ensure strict
compliance of land-use norms. Regulation could also be used not only to mitigate
negative impacts and maximise opportunities, but also to strengthen property rights
and greater community consultation. The use of wasteland for setting up renewable
energy plants may further be incentivised to lessen the diversion of land from
agriculture and forestry.
12.2.3 Setting up Wind-Solar Hybrid Projects
Most part of the Indian sub-continent is conducive for solar projects. As such, the
spare land between the wind turbines can be optimally utilized for putting up solar
modules, based on a thorough techno-commercial assessment. Studies have listed out
economic reasons to house solar modules within a large wind park. This includes use
of existing evacuation infrastructure and land mass, improvement in profile of energy
generated and optimum utilization of resources for maintaining the project. Dual use
of the land for wind and photovoltaic energies may increase the effective energy yield
per square meter and lead to better use of scarce land resources.
There are plans to repower vintage wind farms with larger capacity turbines. These
areas can be initially looked upon for putting up hybrid projects. It is estimated that
the 3500 MW vintage wind capacity complemented by 10% penetration by solar
would obviate the need to acquire over 20,000 acres of land. MNRE has come out
with policies on repowering and hybrid projects and these needs to be effectively
rolled out to attract the investors.
12.2.4 Promoting Land Neutral Technologies
Land neutral solar projects can be set up on spare rooftop space of buildings, offices
and homes, parking lots, central verge along the highways, train tops, metro and
railway stations, roofs of cold storage plants and warehouses, airports and bus
terminals, canal tops and floating systems.
MNRE is supporting many initiatives to tap the potential of land neutral projects
under different business models. Across the globe, most of the solar installations are
on building rooftops. In three of the top five countries with respect to solar capacity
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(Germany, US and Japan), the rooftop installations outnumber the land based utility
scale solar projects. Within the 100 GW solar targets, 40 GW have been earmarked
for rooftop based projects. Most of the states have come out with their rooftop
policies to encourage such projects and the same needs to be promoted.
Canal-top projects provide another opportunity to harness solar energy under a land
neutral mode. Canal based solar projects generate more power than land based
projects due to cooling effect of water on the modules, resulting in lower
temperatures and also help in saving water by reducing the level of evaporation. Even
though these projects are associated with higher capital investments, they are
commercially viable on a long-term basis, which further gets enhanced after
monetizing the water savings.
As per a study undertaken by the Punjab government, a solar plant capacity of 0.16
MW can be put up on every kilometre of canal. Based on this estimation, a total of 10
GW of solar capacity can be added on top of canals
56
. Incidentally, the states having
large network of canals like Uttar Pradesh and Punjab have a significant portion of
their land used for agriculture purposes. As such, encouraging land neutral systems
like canal tops can effectively reduce the use of fertile land by solar projects in these
states. Another upcoming technology is floating modules, wherein solar modules are
put up on water bodies like lakes and reservoirs and the same has been piloted in a
few locations.
In order to encourage land neutral technologies, potential sites need to be identified
along with few pilot projects to stimulate the interest of the developer community.
Subsequently, necessary policy support structure needs to be developed and rolled
out by the government to create a large-scale impact.
12.2.5 Adopting New Technologies
One mechanism to increase the generation from solar projects is the use of trackers,
which allow photovoltaic panels to track the sun from sunrise to sunset. It has been
56
Canal Top Projects review report, MNRE
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observed that using single axis trackers, which rotate on one-axis from east to west
traversing the daily movement of the sun, increases the power generation by upto
25% at an additional upfront cost of 10% and O&M of INR 2 lakhs per year. As such,
the payback of installing tracker system is less than 4 years, leading to increase in
project returns by about 3%. However, the project requires additional land area, 6
acres in comparison to 5 acres required by a MW of fixed-tilt project, and is more
beneficial for higher altitude locations. Therefore, project developers setting up
projects in high altitude locations may be encouraged to use tracking systems.
Comparison may be made on kWh generated per sqm of land used.
12.3 Social
12.3.1 Undertaking Social Impact Assessment
With a large capacity of solar and wind projects expected to be commissioned in the
coming years, large swatches of land would be required. This may impact the local
community in terms of livelihood generation. In this regard, it would be beneficial to
undertake ‘Social Impact Assessment’ which can aid in screening, assessment and
management of social impacts at an early stage in project planning. They can be taken
up on a voluntary basis for large size solar and wind projects, with a capacity of 100
MW and above, besides all the Solar Parks. The reports can delineate provisions for
community development including livelihood planning and skill development.
12.3.2 Exploring Community Business Models
One of the important interventions can be to involve local community in project
development. Most of the project developers intend to purchase land and have limited
interests in the welfare of the local community beyond payment of compensation and
undertaking CSR activities. Community wind and solar farms have come up in several
European countries, notably Germany, Scotland and the Netherlands. Participation
from local people in projects can be in form of equity participation, or subscription of
shares in the project. This shall facilitate land procurement while benefitting the local
community by way of higher and regular returns.
In India, land leasing model has been initiated in states of Punjab and Uttrakhand by
solar project developers due to high cost of land. The contract enables regular rental
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income to the land owners. Solar Park at Pavagadda in Karnataka has also initiated a
similar model.
Another possible business model can be the ‘Limited Liability Partnership’ (LLP),
where land-owners become stakeholders in the company to the extent of their land
value contribution and get commensurate returns. Details about some of the proposed
community business models have been provided in Annexure-IV.
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ANNEXURE I: QUESTIONNAIRE
As part of consultation process, inputs were solicited from a number of stakeholders
across the business spectrum – policy makers, state nodal agencies, project developers,
independent power producers, financial institutions, equipment suppliers, EPC
players, consultants and civil society organizations. Structured questionnaires were
administered to each type of stakeholders, which was followed up with meetings.
The discussants included the representatives of the following companies/ agencies-
Government
Bank/ FI
IPP/OEM
EPC
Consultant
NGO
Association
Niti Aayog
PTC Financial
Services
Azure
Jakson
Bridge to India
CSE
IWTMA
MNRE
SBI-Caps
Suzlon
Lahmeyer
IDAM
Prayas
INWEA
NIWE
World Bank
PTC
Ray's
Power
EVI
C-STEP
SPDA
SECI
Yes Bank
Renew
Green
Strategy
IWMI
RSA
NREDCAP
IREDA
Sembcorp
Wind Force
SCGJ
PEDA
Tata
Cleantech
Capital
Welspun
CPI
KREDL
IFC
Regen
RREC
Inox
Questionnaire: Project Developers and Investors
1) What are the focus areas and the types of services provided by your company?
2) Is the company involved in both solar parks and non-solar park based
projects?
3) What is the mechanism for land procurement (approvals, timelines, cost, etc.)?
4) What are the issues encountered in land procurement for projects?
5) What has been the best practices followed with regard to land procurement?
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6) What have been the trends with respect to land prices?
7) What have been the socio-economic impacts of RE projects on the community?
8) What are your recommendations to facilitate land procurement?
Questionnaire: State Nodal Agency
1) Kindly elaborate on procedure for land allotment (both for private & revenue)
to RE project developers in your state. This can include the different stages of
approvals, respective timelines & charges and land ceiling limits (per MW).
2) Based on the RE capacity targets set for the state, is there sufficient waste land
available for putting up wind and solar projects to avoid use of fertile/
agriculture land for RE projects.
3) How much land/ RE capacity has been allotted to project developers (like wind
OEMs) by the SNA and what has been the rate of development? Are there
penal provisions on developers for delay in project development?
4) What is the mode for land procurement by SNA in case of solar parks (like
acquisition/ purchase / lease/ pooling)?
5) What is the type of support required from government departments - like
MNRE, Land & Revenue, Rural Development and Environment & Forest?
6) What are the compensatory norms in case of acquisition / purchase/ lease of
land (%DLC/circle rates)? Are there compensation norms for users of revenue
land?
7) Please comment on mode of payment for land procurement – cash / cheque,
upfront / annual payments. Is there any capacity development of land sellers
(mostly farmers) to use the money prudentially?
8) What are the expected timelines, approvals and related charges with regard to
land use conversion?
9) Are there any norms (area and compensation, based on voltage levels) for
acquiring/ purchase of land for RoW purposes?
10) Please cite some of the best practices followed in your state with regard to land
being allotted to RE project developers.
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Questionnaire: Banks and Financial Institutions
1) Land procurement for solar and wind energy projects has been identified as a
key bottleneck by investors as it takes a significant percentage of the total
project implementation period. From a lender’s perspective, what are the
major issues involved in land procurement? Please also suggest possible
remedial measures?
2) What kind of due-diligence is undertaken by banks/FIs with respect to land
before making sanctions/ disbursements for solar/ wind projects? What is the
time taken for the aforementioned activity? Kindly suggest possible measures
to reduce this timeline.
3) Please indicate the type of land as preferred by lenders – private land or
revenue land? What is the comfort level for lending in case of private land
taken on lease by developers (example - private land lease for solar projects in
Punjab)?
4) It has been observed that many RE projects are coming up on fertile land. Do
the banks/ FIs have any policy to discourage projects on fertile agrarian land
and encourage use of barren / wasteland?
5) Community owned solar/ wind projects are prevalent in many European
nations. MNRE and few state governments have come out with farmer’s solar
schemes, soliciting participation of local land owners in RE projects. Kindly
share the level of comfort in lending for such kind of projects?
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ANNEXURE II: STAKEHOLDER WORKSHOP
A workshop was organized to share the key findings of the study with the
stakeholders and undertake deliberations on the proposed recommendations. The
session was inaugurated by the Secretary, MNRE with participation from Niti Aayog,
SECI and TERI. Representatives from some of the leading IPPs, EPCs, Consultancy
groups and Civil Society Organizations shared their opinion on the subject and
suggested mechanisms to expedite land procurement.
The following were the major observations made during the Workshop-
• Land an economic good, all types of land have a certain use
• Competing needs of land by different sectors
• Systemic planning of land use considering all SDGs
• Project economics to include socio-environmental costs
• Selection can be on kwh per sqm basis
• Promote Land neutral technologies like BIPV, solar tree, canal tops, floating,
off-shore wind and hybrid; use of cold & hot deserts, barren land
• Raised module structures to support crops beneath
• Capacity development of regulators, developers, financiers
• Undertake Social Impact Assessment studies
• Community skill development by local ITIs
• Land lease document can incorporate safeguards
• Use of GIS in conjunction with Land Atlas, record keeping
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ANNEXURE III: SITE VISITS
To corroborate the realities at the ground level as shared by the stakeholders and
opined in the perused reports, field visits were undertaken to a few wind farms, solar
projects and solar parks.
During these field trips, discussions were held with the personnel of the projects
involved in maintaining or implementing the project. Views of the local community
members including farmers were also ascertained.
Solar Park – Anantpur, Andhra Pradesh
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Solar PV Project - Bhatinda, Punjab
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ANNEXURE IV: COMMUNITY BUSINESS MODELS
As the economy is expanding the electricity demand is going to grow further. Due to
the renewable energy impetus, an increase in the development of wind and solar farms
is expected in India. RE projects require land, which is a scarce resource. Since RE
sector is growing fast, the land acquisition issues may rake up socio-economic conflicts.
To minimise the socio-economic impacts of RE projects due to land procurement, few
community business models have been developed which are discussed below.
LLP Model
A Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) may be formed, where the land-owners become
stakeholders in the LLP to the extent of their land value contribution. Refer Figure 12.
Figure 12: Schematic of LLP Business Model
The key aspects of the LLP model are as follows:
1) Landowners will be engaged in the business as equity shareholders. Value of
equity shareholding will be corresponding to the value of land. Return on Equity
therefore will be accordingly computed.
2) Capital value of land will be open to negotiation between the landowners and
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the Project Developer. Landowners will get proportionate ownership and
interest in the project. As per the prevailing regulatory norms the land value
allowed is on an average 5-6% of the total project cost. A project is generally
financed in 30:70 (Equity: Debt) ratio. The normative 5-6% allowed under the
regulations, will form part of 30% of equity contribution and therefore will
translate into 20% of equity in absolute terms. Project developer needs to deploy
the balance equity.
3) EPC and O&M activities will be undertaken by the Project developer and would
be duly compensated for the same. An Agreement will be executed between the
landowners, represented as Association of Persons, and the Project Developer.
Sufficient safe-guards will be incorporated in the Agreement to ensure time
bound completion of the Project. The LLP Agreement would include indemnity
clause to ensure that the land or its value is secured. In case of default, where
the LLP is unable to service its debt and the LLP is taken over by a financial
institution, the landowners will continue to have same returns and security as
promised originally under the Agreement.
4) This model can be explored in Captive Generation Plants, by high demand
consumers like industries and commercial establishments. In case there is no
expertise, sub-contractors may be engaged for EPC and O&M activities.
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END OF REPORT
