New Delhi, May 12 (ANI): The National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC) has decided to allocate 0.5 percent of its distributable profit annually for its "Research and Development Fund for Sustainable Energy".

This fund will be used for sponsoring / undertaking research leading to development of green and clean technologies.

The research project may include development of Coal Gasification Technology for commercial use, reducing cost of harnessing solar energy, LED lighting, improvement in efficiency of its power stations etc.

Minister of State for Commerce and Power Jairam Ramesh revealed this at a news conference here today where Dr. R.K. Pachauri, Director General of the TATA Energy Research Institute and R.S. Sharma, Chairman and Managing Director of NTPC were also present.

NTPC is on record as saying that it is committed to controlling carbon dioxide emissions per unit of power generation with portfolio management, adoption of the State of the art technology with special thrust on the renewable energy sources, develop one million square feet of Green Building Space within NTPC premises by the year 2017, spearhead awareness campaigns nation wide to orient the people, strengthen and leverage the Government's efforts in this area.

With its priority of generating clean power, the long-term focus areas of NTPC shall cover re-powering and replacement of old units, introduction of ultra super critical technology, modifying the fuel portfolio with higher share of renewable, clean coal technologies.

The company saidit is undertaking massive afforestation covering vast areas of land in and around its projects and till date it has planted more than 18.37 million trees at its projects.

As a result of pursuing sound environment management systems and practices, all NTPC stations have been certified with ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 by reputed national and international certifying agencies. (ANI)