Soon, the Sun will shine bright on Punjab Government’s all offices buildings. For, the Government on Friday issued directions to the heads of all departments to the process to issue the no objection certificates (NOC) so that the solar photovoltaic (PV) panels can be installed at the rooftop of the office buildings at the earliest.
The directions were issued by the state’s New and Renewable Energy Sources Minister Aman Arora on Friday while chairing a video conference (VC) meeting with the HoDs to review the status of the project.
Arora asked the concerned officials to appoint a senior officer of their departments as a Nodal Officer to coordinate with Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA) to further smoothen the process of solarizing the building of the departments.
The Minister said that the Punjab Government is fully committed to strengthen the clean energy infrastructure for ensuring clean environment to people of the State. “This environment-friendly move will go a long way to decarbonize the power sector as Solar PV has become the most preferred source of renewable power, due to the various benefits that it offers,” he added.
Arora, addressing the meeting, said that this ambitious project will be executed under Renewable Energy Services Company (RESCO) mode and PEDA has already installed solar PV of a total capacity of 88MW on the rooftops of various government buildings and these have been successfully generating clean and green energy.
“This project will reduce the financial burden of the electricity bills of respective departments by approximately 40 to 50 percent thus becoming more efficient. The amount saved from electricity bills would be spent on public welfare, he added.
The state’s Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) to the Chief Minister-cum-ACS, New and Renewable Energy Sources Department, A Venu Prasad emphasized that all the departments should come forward for this revolutionary step as in turn, it will help in creating hundreds of direct and indirect jobs, besides helping in meeting the electricity deficit by providing relief to the overloaded distribution network.