The State Government has decided to run all its office buildings on solar power to reduce consumption of hydro and thermal power for all its operations.
In the first phase, all Government buildings located in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack would be powered by solar energy, informed the Green Energy Development Corporation of Odisha limited (GEDCOl).
Sources said that 199 buildings of the twin city Cuttack (73) and Bhubaneswar (126) would run on solar power. Solar panels would be installed on the roof as per the requirement of a building.
The project has already been launched at the State Secretariat, where solar panels are being installed on the roofs of all buildings at its premises. The entire building is likely to be covered in solar power in September.
A total of four megawatt power can be generated by the solar panels that would be installed in the twin cities.
Notably, an MoU for the project launched on PPP mode was inked in July 2016. The Government has a target to complete the project in three phases along with allocating Rs 8 crore per one-MW power.
Although a decision was made to complete 0.2-MW project by December 2016, 0.8 MW by March 2017 and 3 MW by September 2017, the project is delayed.
Meanwhile, towns have been identified for the second-phase project for covering the buildings in solar energy. Solar panels would be installed on the Government buildings in Sambalpur, Burla, Hirakud, Rourkela, Puri, Khordha, Brahmapur, Chhatrapur, Jeypore, Koraput, Sunabeda, Baleswar, Bhadrak and Baripada.
later, the Central Government offices in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack as well as the Government staff quarters would be solar-powered. The Government has a target to produce 10 MW of electricity under the solar project.