Report predicts forced displacement of poor people from their land to meet EU targets to grow fuel crops. The European Union’s biofuel policies are driving up global food prices and pushing people in poor countries off their land, says a recent report of ActionAid. EU has a target of 10 per cent renewable energy in transport by 2020, and 88 per cent of this is expected to come from biofuels. The report Fuel for Thought comes at a time when the European Commission is set to submit a report on Renewable Energy Directive to the European Parliament this year.

Other states may follow suit as cash-strapped state discoms find the going difficult. Odisha government has asked the Centre for a subsidy to purchase solar power, saying it is too costly. The move makes Odisha the first state in the country to openly express its inability to purchase costly renewable energy. The state may not be the last one to demand aid—cash strapped state discoms are increasingly finding it difficult to purchase renewable energy.

But the country lacks a tidal energy policy. The Gujarat government is all set to develop India’s first tidal energy plant. The state government has approved Rs 25 crore for setting up the 50 MW plant at the Gulf of Kutch. It will produce energy from the ocean tides. The state government signed a MoU with Atlantis Resource Corporation last year to develop the plant. “The proposal was approved in this year’s budget session,” says Rajkumar Raisinghani, senior executive with Gujarat Power Corporation Limited (GPCL).

Solar mission mandate to promote domestic crystalline silicon technology fails to achieve desired result. The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is planning to create a fund to help entrepreneurs who are setting up domestically engineered solar power plants in the country. Many project developers feel the pinch while buying solar equipment from domestic manufacturers because cheaper Chinese and US solar panels are available in the market.

The companies missed the last deadline of March 9 to commission solar power plants under national solar mission. The bank guarantees of three companies, commissioned to install solar power plants under the national solar mission have been encashed. The companies failed to commission the power plants on time. The last date of commissioning was March 9.

Fukushima is the latest spur for the campaign against the ambitious Kudankulum project in Tamil Nadu. Read this report on the sociology and politics of the 25-year old struggle and the status of nuclear eanergy a year after Fukushima.

Canada heaves sigh of relief. The European Union’s plan to rank oil extracted from tar sands as highly polluting hit a roadblock as its fuel quality directive committee (a group of experts) could not reach a unanimous decision in the voting held on February 23. The oil extracted from tar sands, like those found in the Canadian province of Alberta, was to be given a default value of 107 grams of CO2 equivalent per megajoule (MJ).

NVVN recovers Rs 28 crore from erring firms. Acting tough on companies that did not commission solar power projects on time, NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN) Limited has encashed a part of bank guarantee of 14 of them. The companies were awarded projects under batch one of the first phase of Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM). The last date of commissioning was January 9. About Rs 28 crores have been encashed from these firms located in Rajasthan, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Country’s varied topography, space constraint make it an uphill task, they say. The telecom industry is finding it difficult to implement the recent directions issued by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on cutting carbon emissions. DoT had issued directions on January 4, wherein it asked the service providers to frame a Carbon Credit Policy detailing methods to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.