Giving a boost to the renewable energy sector in the state, the Uttar Pradesh government is all set to get over 1050 megawatt of solar energy by the end of this year and for this the solar power plants have entered into agreement with the Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL).
Power Minister Shrikant Sharma said that under the solar power energy policy, Uttar Pradesh was set to get 1122 MW of solar energy of which 1050 MW would be made available by November this year.
“The UPPCL has entered into an agreement with the solar units under open access or third party agreement. We are moving ahead in this direction confidently and would be able to generate enough solar power that will ease pressure on the conventional methods of generating electricity,” Sharma told this reporter.
He said that the first captive 50 MW unit had been commissioned on November 23, 2019. “Our solar energy policy is very attractive and many private players have started working on the ground with the government in this field,” he said.
The confidence of the minister sounds music to the ear at a time when the latest State of India’s Environment Annual report has claimed that the country’s renewable energy sector was losing steam, and even as the total capacity had reached almost 86 GW by December 2019, it may not meet the target of 175 gigaWatt (GW) RE capacity by 2022.
The renewable energy would mainly be in the form of 100 GW solar (60 GW utility-scale and 40 GW rooftop) and 60 GW wind.
Between 2014 and 2018, the renewable energy sector grew from 2.6 GW to 28 GW — a cumulative aggregated growth rate of around 18 per cent.
The report further says that annual additions to solar capacity had dipped drastically to 6.5 GW in 2018-19 from 9.4 GW in 2017-18.
The minister said that in 2019, rooftop solar power units of capacity 15 MW were installed and over 9,120 solar pumps and 7,120 solar streetlights had been installed.
“Our stress is on introducing renewable energy system in the rural sector where we are determined to provide quality electricity at a cheaper rate to the consumers,” the minister said.