R.K. Singh, Union Minister of Power and New & Renewable Energy and the ex-officio Patron of Association of Renewable Energy Agencies of States (AREAS) graced the ceremony of 6th Foundation Day of AREAS on 27th August 2020 through online platform. He launched AREAS website www.areas.org.in and also Telephone Directory of AREAS.
While talking about the future of Renewable Energy, Singh said, “Renewable energy is economically viable today. The only rider is storage. Prices of storage will come down over time. We should bring down storage prices by increasing demand and putting up more manufacturing facilities. Once that happens the transition to renewables will be faster. More and more future projects will have storage with them. I propose to have RPO for round the clock renewable energy which will encourage storage.” He added that AREAS as a mission should take activities like launching communication plan including hoardings, radio/tv spots encouraging the consumption of electricity through renewables. We will have to make people aware that this will bring down their expenses on electricity and it is good for environment. For this Ministry can provide additional corpus fund to AREAS. AREAS should organize brainstorming sessions at least once in a quarter to discuss issues of renewable energy sector and come out with possible innovative solutions.
Association of Renewable Energy Agencies of the States (AREAS) has been formed on MNRE initiative to interact and learn from each other’s experiences and also share their best practices and knowledge regarding technologies and schemes/programmes. The AREAS got registered under Society Registration Act 1860 on 27 August 2014. Union Minister for New & Renewable Energy is the Patron of the Association and Secretary, MNRE is the ex-officio President of the Association. All SNAs( State Nodal Agencies) are the member of the Association.
Considering the importance of mutual interaction and sharing of experience & knowledge between the SNAs, steps have been taken to re-invigorate the AREAS. During last two months four meetings/workshops have been organized through online platform. For proper functioning of AREAS Vice President and Executive Committee have been selected by General Body of AREAS in the meeting held on 30th July 2020.
