New Delhi: Apprehending protest from farmers over land acquisition, the government has decided to soft- pedal its proposal to set up an exclusive Special Economic Zone for units manufacturing equipment for renewable energy. "We are going extremely slow as we do not want farmers agitation and repeat of Singur and Nandigram", Minister of State for New and Renewable Energy Vilas Muttemwar said.

However, the ministry is keen that an SEZ for renewable energy equipment is set up. While many states including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have shown interest in the SEZ, the ministry is yet to decide on the "central location". Muttemwar said his ministry is taking steps to exceed the target of generating 14,000 MW renewable energy by 2012.

At present, the country has an installed renewable energy capacity of 10,500 MW. He said the government is inviting investment from China both for manufacturing equipment as also power generation from the new sources. Chinese players too might enter the Indian market in a big way, he said.
There is also a lot of interest from the German firms which are in talk with Indian companies for joint ventures, he said.

The government is giving priority to the new energy areas including solar and wind because the 78,500 MW target of the 11th Plan cannot be achieved through the conventional power sector alone, the minister said. He said India has been able to tap only 10 per cent of the 70,000 MW potential in the wind energy.