With a view to achieve the target of 4200 Megawatt (MW) of power generation from solar energy by the
year 2022, the Haryana Government has made installation of solar photovoltaic (SPV) power plants mandatory for certain category of buildings or areas in the State.
Haryana Principal Secretary, Renewable Energy Ankur Gupta on Monday said that out of this, 1600 MW of power would be generated from rooftop solar power plants. The power generated through installation of roof top power plants by each individual household, industrial building, commercial building or any other type of building can be utilised to partly fulfill the requirement of the building occupants and surplus, if any, could be fed into the grid under Net-Metering Regulations.
The beneficiary pays to the utility on net meter reading basis only, which makes it quite an attractive proposition for the users to install solar power plants on their building rooftops, he added.
He said that first grid connected rooftop solar power plant with net –metering facility has already been installed in the State on Energy Conservation Day on December 14, 2015.
Gupta informed that the grid connected Rooftop Solar Power Plants of 5MW aggregated capacity are under installation in the State.
Due to advancement in technology for solar PV power plants and their wide range of application, the building owners were also taking keen interest in installation of rooftop solar PV power plants. The cost of solar power is declining whereas the cost of fossil fuel based electricity is increasing day by day. A typical 1 KW solar power plant costs about Rs 70,000 to 75,000 which may produce 1500 units of electricity annually. The payback period is about four years whereas life of the system is more than 25 years, said the senior official.
He added that to encourage installation of grid connected rooftop solar power plants, the Government is providing financial incentive of Rs 20,000 per KWp or 30 per cent of the benchmark cost of the plant, whichever is less, to all categories of users except the commercial and industrial establishment of private sector.