LONDON, Feb 13, 2006 -- AsiaPulse

 

India has prepared a roadmap for the use of non-conventional resources with one million Hydrogen powered vehicles expected to run on the country's roads by 2020, Non-Conventional Energy Resources Minister Vilas Muttemwar has said.

"We have been slow to respond to face the challenge of our energy requirements, but we are fast catching up and if powerful nations like America, China, Japan, Canada and Germany have a roadmap for Hydrogen energy, so have we. By the year 2020, we will have one million vehicles on our roads running with Hydrogen fuel," he told a BBC Hindi programme last night.

"We have huge resources of renewable energy in the country. To begin with we have a potential of five trillion Mega Watts of solar energy, seventy thousand MW of wind energy and more than 2,00,000 MW of Hydrogen energy. We are now tapping this potential to meet our requirements," the minister said.

Admitting India's lack of planning in the energy sector over the years, Muttemwar said due to this the country was presently facing a gap between its energy needs and resources, and a change in the mindset was essential to understand the importance of renewable energy resources if the country was to overcome the challenge in the sector.

"Keeping in mind the country's population and our energy needs, there has been a lack of planning in the energy sector over the years. That is why we are facing such a challenging situation, but we can overcome this challenge if we change our mindset and positively move ahead with the renewable sources of energy," he said.

(PTI)

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