With a view to harness the tremendous solar power potential the State holds, Haryana Government has decided to make installation of solar power plants mandatory for specified categories of buildings, including buildings of housing societies and industries.
Haryana Principal Secretary, Renewable Energy, Ankur Gupta, said that a notification to this effect had been issued. This initiative is aimed at promoting green and clean power and setting a high trajectory for solar power generation in the State.
Under the Haryana Solar Power Policy-2016, the State Government is providing various incentives, including industrial status, exemption from change of land use approval, electricity duty, cess, free-wheeling and banking facility, exemption of T&D and cross-subsidy charges. Besides, the Government has also decided to purchase solar power over and above the solar Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO), Gupta said.
As many as 40 investors have signed MoUs for investment of over `98,000 crore with the aim of addition of 8,531.75 MW of solar power, besides setting up of BIO CNG, module or cell manufacturing and research and development units in the State.
Describing Haryana as an emerging State in the renewable energy sector due to the investor-friendly policies pursued by the government, Gupta said that small investors were being promoted by reserving 20 per cent of the target for projects of 1 megawatt (MW) to 2 MW capacity, giving a price preference of two per cent for the plants installed within Haryana.
The Government is also promoting rooftop solar power plants in the State. These rooftop solar power plants replace DG gen-sets, which result in further reduction of pollution and emission of greenhouse gases. In Haryana, a solar power plant can work for about 330 days a year, every kilowatt of which produces about 1,600 units of electricity a year, said he.
A typical 1KW solar power plant costs about `55,000 to `60,000, after availing subsidy. While the payback period is about four to five years, the system lasts for more than 25 years. The Government is also providing 30 per cent subsidy, subject to a maximum of `20,000 per kilowatt peak (kWp), on installation of solar power plants for certain categories of buildings, Gupta added.